Fundus-AP-News-Formatted-3-AutoSuffixCleaned.jsonl

{"requested_url": "https://apnews.com/article/mideast-wars-iran-israel-000001978456df5ea1f7ecd768370000", "title": "These are Iran's top political and spiritual leaders", "publishing_date": "2025-06-18 19:08:33.802000+00:00", "topics": ["MIDEAST WARS", "Iran", "Israel"], "text": "# These are Iran's top political and spiritual leaders\n\nJune 18th, 2025, 07:08 PM\n\n---\n\nAfter assassinating several top Iranian military officials and nuclear scientists, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has warned that Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei could be next, and that it may topple Tehran's entire leadership.\n\nSwipe through for a look at Iran's top leaders."}
{"requested_url": "https://apnews.com/article/stanley-cup-florida-panthers-repeat-c77a5ceeb96664d3059c154b9a8b09e6", "title": "Florida Panthers repeat as Stanley Cup champions, numbers to know", "publishing_date": "2025-06-18 10:00:07+00:00", "topics": ["Florida Panthers", "Sergei Bobrovsky", "Sam Bennett", "Brad Marchand", "Edmonton Oilers", "Corey Perry", "Mark Recchi", "Sam Reinhart", "Florida", "NHL", "Stanley Cup", "Sports", "Ted Lindsay", "Stanley Cup Finals", "Martin Brodeur", "Chris Chelios", "Alex Delvecchio", "NHL hockey"], "text": "# Florida Panthers repeat as Stanley Cup champions, numbers to know\n\nBy The Associated Press  \nJune 18th, 2025, 10:00 AM\n\n---\n\nThe Florida Panthers are back-to-back Stanley Cup champions after defeating the Edmonton Oilers in their rematch final. They needed just six games this time after a seven-game thriller a year ago.\n\nHere are the numbers to know about the repeat:\n\n3 \u2014 Teams that have won consecutive titles since the NHL salary cap era began in 2005. The Panthers join the Tampa Bay Lightning (2020-21) and the Pittsburgh Penguins (2016-17).\n\n19 \u2014 Teams in league history that have won the Cup two or more times in a row.\n\n5 \u2014 Championships by teams based in the U.S. Sun Belt over the past six years. Four of those belong to the state of Florida, and the Lightning like the Panthers made three consecutive trips to the final.\n\n32 \u2014 Years since a Canadian team last won the Cup (1993 Montreal Canadiens). Edmonton became the eighth Canadian team to lose in the final since.\n\n13 \u2014 First-period goals the Panthers scored to the Oilers' four, a plus-9 differential that is tied for the widest margin in a final (Pittsburgh outscored the Minnesota North Stars by the same margin in 1991).\n\n4 \u2014 Goaltenders since 1981-82 to win the Vezina Trophy as the league's top goalie during the regular season and also earn two Stanley Cup rings, with Sergei Bobrovsky joining Hall of Famers Patrick Roy, Dominik Hasek and Martin Brodeur.\n\n15 \u2014 Goals scored by Sam Bennett in the playoffs, leading all players. Bennett is a pending unrestricted free agent.\n\n14 \u2014 Years between Stanley Cup titles for Brad Marchand, who last won it with the Boston Bruins in 2011. Only Chris Chelios (16 years, 1986-2002) and Mark Recchi (15 years, 1991-2006) had longer gaps.\n\n5 \u2014 Losses in the final over the past six years for Corey Perry, who would have had the longest gap between titles had Edmonton won (18 years, Anaheim in 2007).\n\n2 \u2014 Teams in NHL history to have three players with five or more goals in the final, with Bennett, Marchand and Sam Reinhart putting the Panthers in the same category as the 1955 Red Wings (Alex Delvecchio, Gordie Howe and Ted Lindsay)."}
{"requested_url": "https://apnews.com/article/travelers-championship-spaun-e8145b50ef22a525818f8d9bca1cb0cf", "title": "US Open champion JJ Spaun to get back to work at Travelers", "publishing_date": "2025-06-18 20:04:56+00:00", "topics": ["J.J. Spaun", "Golf", "Scottie Scheffler", "Keegan Bradley", "U.S. Open Mens Golf Championships", "Connecticut", "Rory McIlroy", "Los Angeles Dodgers", "Sports", "Jordan Spieth", "New York"], "text": "# US Open champion JJ Spaun to get back to work at Travelers\n\nBy Doug Ferguson  \nJune 18th, 2025, 08:04 PM\n\n---\n\nCROMWELL, Conn. (AP) \u2014 This isn't the first time J.J. Spaun has come to the Travelers Championship after a life-changing moment. Two years ago, his daughter Violet was born on a Monday and he didn't show up to the TPC River Highlands until the night before the opening round.\n\nHe might be even more wiped now. That's what winning a U.S. Open can do.\n\n\"Violet's birthday is Thursday,\" Spaun said while reminiscing. But then he stopped and his eyes widened slightly. \"Tomorrow. I don't even know what day it is.\"\n\nIt's been quite the whirlwind, and the U.S. Open champion wouldn't trade it.\n\nThe Los Angeles Dodgers \u2014 the team script is on his yardage book \u2014 are trying to arrange for him to throw out the first pitch. Shortstop Mookie Betts, who played the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am with Spaun a few years back, congratulated him. Text messages came in from U.S. Open champions Curtis Strange and Hale Irwin.\n\nSpaun slept three hours early Monday before it was off to New York, where he had a full day of media on Tuesday and then was driven to the TPC River Highlands. He slept eight hours, about as much as the previous two nights combined.\n\n\"It's been pretty hectic but also very fun,\" Spaun said Wednesday. \"It's been nice to be given the opportunity to express my feelings, my emotions. A lot of people want to hear from me. I was really grateful to have the opportunity to tell everyone about it. So I enjoyed it.\"\n\nAnd now it's back to work, which should be a fun time for the 72-man field, at least those who had to slog through 5 1/2-inch rough soaked by rain at Oakmont for a grueling week.\n\nThe Travelers Championship, the last of the $20 million signature events, is a happier occasion where the scoring is easier, even though the TPC River Highlands can still punish bad shots.\n\nThe rough is still plenty thick, just not quite as dense as it was at Oakmont. And players are not hitting into putting surfaces where the golf ball never seems to stop rolling.\n\nStill, it's a welcome relief.\n\n\"It's more just kind of getting back into the swing of things of, 'All right, actually I have a 7-iron in my hand, but I don't have to be quite as careful,' I guess,\" Jordan Spieth said. \"It's no gimme golf course, especially if we're going to see windy conditions.\n\n\"The short answer is, yeah, it's kind of nice,\" he said. \"It would be hard to play something like that (Oakmont) every single week. But at the same time, you get a lot of risk-reward on the back nine here, which can yield 3-, 4-, 5 under rounds, but you can also get in big-time trouble.\"\n\nFor Spaun, it's moving forward just four days after his dynamic finish. He was in a five-way tie for the lead on the back nine and pulled ahead with a driver onto the 17th green for a two-putt birdie and a 65-foot birdie putt for a magical finish in his two-shot victory.\n\n\"I definitely need to keep the hunger there,\" Spaun said. \"I think I will have the hunger just because I want to continue to prove myself, but not prove myself to anybody other than myself. I feel like my biggest barrier throughout my entire career is just trying not to be so hard on myself and not ruining any sort of confidence that I've built from all these experiences on my journey as a golfer.\n\n\"As long as I keep that up, I think I'll continue to play well,\" he said. \"And obviously winning the U.S. Open is going to be a huge boost to that inner ego, I guess you could say, to keep that self-belief alive and burning.\"\n\nScottie Scheffler had no trouble last year when he went from winning the Masters to winning the RBC Heritage at Harbour Town. Rory McIlroy won the British Open in 2014, had two weeks off and then won a World Golf Championship at Firestone and a PGA Championship in consecutive weeks.\n\n\"I think after winning a major championship, like the first time you come back out to the course is a bit of a circus sometimes just with all the people,\" Scheffler said. \"J.J. just achieved a lifetime goal and dream of his. It's definitely different coming to the golf course, for sure. There's a lot more people, a lot more stuff to sign, a lot of stuff that goes on.\n\n\"It's all good things. It's all stuff that's fun.\"\n\nKeegan Bradley won his first major in 2011 as a PGA Tour rookie, had a week off and then missed the cut in his next two tournaments.\n\n\"I remember coming home and going out to dinner with my friends and walking into the restaurant. I could feel that people knew who I was. I had never felt that,\" Bradley said. \"The thing I told J.J. was I hope he really enjoys this.\""}
{"requested_url": "https://apnews.com/article/germany-berlin-river-swimmers-100-year-ban-aa0b9d111222e3acb123a04204343956", "title": "Berliners swim in the Spree River to protest 100-year ban", "publishing_date": "2025-06-17 17:55:39+00:00", "topics": ["Berlin", "Waterways", "Germany government", "JWD-evergreen", "Climate and environment", "Sports", "Lifestyle", "Entertainment", "Jan Edler", "Paris", "Water quality", "Vienna", "Climate"], "text": "# Berliners swim in the Spree River to protest 100-year ban\n\nBy Kirsten Grieshaber  \nJune 17th, 2025, 05:55 PM\n\n---\n\nBERLIN (AP) \u2014 A century after the city of Berlin banned swimming in the Spree River because it was so polluted it could make people sick, there's a push by swimmers to get back into the water.\n\nAround 200 people jumped into the slow-moving, greenish water Tuesday to show that it's not only clean enough, but also lots of fun to splash and swim in the Mitte neighborhood along the world-famous Museum Island.\n\nA group calling itself Fluss Bad Berlin, or River Pool Berlin, has been lobbying for years to open the meandering river for swimmers again.\n\n\"For 100 years now, people have not been allowed to swim in the inner-city Spree and we no longer think this is justified, because we can show that the water quality is usually good enough to go swimming during the season,\" said Jan Edler, who is on the board of Fluss Bad Berlin and helped organize Tuesday's swim-in.\n\nTo circumvent the ban, the group registered their collective swim event as an official protest.\n\nStanding on a little staircase that leads down to the Spree canal, which flows around the southern side of the island, Edler stressed that \"we want the people to use the Spree for recreation again.\"\n\nHe pointed to the fact that the river has been cleaned up thoroughly, and that the water quality has improved in the last decade and is constantly being monitored.\n\nEven city officials in the central Mitte district of Berlin say they'd be interested in introducing river swimming again in 2026.\n\n\"There are still many things that need to be clarified, but I am optimistic that it can succeed,\" district city councilor Ephraim Gothe told German news agency dpa recently.\n\nSupporters of lifting the swimming ban also point at Paris, where the Seine River was opened up for swimmers for the Olympic Games last year and will be opened this summer for Parisians. Swimming there had been banned since 1923.\n\nIn Vienna, too, water lovers can splash into the Danube River canal, in the Swiss city of Basel they can bathe in the Rhine, and in Amsterdam there are some designated areas where people can plunge into the canals.\n\nOnly in Berlin, swimming has been continuously prohibited in the Spree since May 1925, when the German capital closed all traditional river pools because the water was deemed too toxic. Some of those pools weren't only used for recreational swimming, but were a place for poor people to wash themselves if they didn't have bathrooms at home.\n\nThese days, the water is clean on most days, except when there's heavy rain, which leads to some water pollution.\n\nAllowing swimmers to dive into the river would also mean loosening the historical monument protection on some parts of the riverbanks to install easy access ways to the water and places for lifeguards.\n\nAnother problem is the busy boat traffic on the Spree that could endanger swimmers. However, for the time being, the Fluss Bad Berlin group only wants to open up nearly 2-kilometer-long (just over a mile-long) canal where there's no boat traffic.\n\nFor what it's worth, the German capital, a city of 3.9 million, could definitely need more places where people can cool off in the summer as regular outdoor pools tend to be hopelessly overcrowded on hot summer days.\n\n\"The cities are getting hotter,\" Edler said. \"It's also a question of environmental justice to create offers for people who just can't make it out of the city when it's so hot and can enjoy themselves in the countryside.\""}
{"requested_url": "https://apnews.com/article/israel-iran-attacks-nuclear-news-06-19-2025-b508817b78ed8d2f6067c1516215cf94", "title": "Trump says he will decide on Iran attack within two weeks", "publishing_date": "2025-06-19 01:44:51+00:00", "topics": ["Donald Trump", "Israel", "Iran", "Tehran", "Iran government", "Ali Khamenei", "Tom Wurtz", "2024-2025 Mideast Wars", "Israel government", "MIDEAST WARS", "Luke Johnson", "Diplomacy", "Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf", "Abbas Araghchi", "Military and defense", "Nuclear weapons", "Politics", "War and unrest", "Medical technology", "Karoline Leavitt", "Bombings"], "text": "# Trump says he will decide on Iran attack within two weeks\n\nBy Sam Mednick, Natalie Melzer, Jon Gambrell, and Melanie Lidman  \nJune 19th, 2025, 01:44 AM\n\n---\n\nBEERSHEBA, Israel (AP) \u2014 Israel and Iran exchanged more attacks on Thursday as U.S. President Donald Trump said he would make up his mind within two weeks on whether the U.S. military will get directly involved in the conflict, seeking to keep open the door to diplomacy on Tehran's nuclear program.\n\n\"Based on the fact that there's a substantial chance of negotiations that may or may not take place with Iran in the near future, I will make my decision whether or not to go within the next two weeks,\" Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, told reporters, reading out Trump's statement.\n\nTrump has been weighing whether to attack Iran by striking its well-defended Fordo uranium enrichment facility, which is buried under a mountain and widely considered to be out of reach of all but America's \"bunker-buster\" bombs.\n\nEarlier in the day, Israel's defense minister threatened Iran's supreme leader after Iranian missiles crashed into a major hospital in southern Israel and hit residential buildings near Tel Aviv, wounding at least 240 people. As rescuers wheeled patients out of the smoldering hospital, Israeli warplanes launched their latest attack on Iran's nuclear program.\n\nIsraeli Defense Minister Israel Katz blamed Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei for Thursday's barrage and said the military \"has been instructed and knows that in order to achieve all of its goals, this man absolutely should not continue to exist.\"\n\nPrime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he trusted that Trump would \"do what's best for America.\"\n\n\"I can tell you that they're already helping a lot,\" Netanyahu said from the rubble and shattered glass around the Soroka Medical Center in Israel's southern city of Beersheba.\n\nThe open conflict between Israel and Iran erupted last Friday with a surprise wave of Israeli airstrikes targeting nuclear and military sites, top generals and nuclear scientists. At least 639 people, including 263 civilians, have been killed in Iran and more than 1,300 wounded, according to a Washington-based Iranian human rights group.\n\nIran has retaliated by firing 450 missiles and 1,000 drones at Israel, according to Israeli army estimates. Most have been shot down by Israel's multitiered air defenses, but at least 24 people in Israel have been killed and hundreds wounded.\n\n## Many hospitals have transferred patients underground\n\nIsrael's Home Front Command said one of the Iranian ballistic missiles fired Thursday morning had been rigged with fragmenting cluster munitions. Rather than a conventional warhead, a cluster munition warhead carries dozens of submunitions that can explode on impact, showering small bomblets around a large area and posing major safety risks on the ground. The Israeli military did not say where that missile had been fired.\n\nAt least 80 patients and medical workers were wounded in the strike on Israel's Soroka Medical Center. The vast majority were lightly wounded, as much of the hospital building had been evacuated in recent days.\n\nIranian officials insisted that they had not sought to strike the hospital and claimed the attack hit a facility belonging to the Israeli military's elite technological unit, called C4i. The website for the Gav-Yam Negev advanced technologies park, some three kilometers (2 miles) from the hospital, said C4i had a branch campus in the area.\n\nThe Israeli army did not respond to a request for comment. An Israeli military official, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with regulations, acknowledged that there was no specific intelligence that Iran had planned to target the hospital.\n\nMany hospitals in Israel, including Soroka, had activated emergency plans in the past week. They converted parking garages to wards and transferred vulnerable patients underground. Israel also has a fortified, subterranean blood bank that kicked into action after Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023, attack ignited the ongoing war in the Gaza Strip.\n\nDoctors at Soroka said the Iranian missile struck almost immediately after air raid sirens went off, causing an explosion that could be heard from a safe room. The strike inflicted the greatest damage on an old surgery building and affected key infrastructure, including gas, water and air-conditioning systems, the medical center said.\n\nThe hospital, which provides services to around 1 million residents, had been caring for 700 patients at the time. After the strike, the hospital closed to all patients except for life-threatening cases.\n\n## Iran rejects calls to surrender or end its nuclear program\n\nIran has long maintained its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes. But it is the only non-nuclear-weapon state to enrich uranium up to 60%, a short, technical step away from weapons-grade levels of 90%.\n\nIsrael is widely believed to be the only country with a nuclear weapons program in the Middle East but has never acknowledged the existence of its arsenal.\n\nThe Israeli air campaign has targeted Iran's enrichment site at Natanz, centrifuge workshops around Tehran, a nuclear site in Isfahan and what the army assesses to be most of Iran's ballistic missile launchers. The destruction of those launchers has contributed to the steady decline in Iranian attacks since the start of the conflict.\n\nOn Thursday, anti-aircraft artillery was audible across Tehran, and witnesses in the central city of Isfahan reported seeing anti-aircraft fire after nightfall.\n\nTrump's announcement of a decision in the next two weeks opened up diplomatic options, with the apparent hope Iran would make concessions after suffering major military losses.\n\nA new diplomatic initiative seemed to be underway as Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi prepared to travel Friday to Geneva for meetings with the European Union's top diplomat, and with counterparts from the United Kingdom, France and Germany.\n\nBut at least publicly, Iran has struck a hard line.\n\nIran's supreme leader on Wednesday rejected U.S. calls for surrender and warned that any U.S. military involvement would cause \"irreparable damage to them.\"\n\nParliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf on Thursday criticized Trump for using military pressure to gain an advantage in nuclear negotiations. The latest indirect talks between Iran and the U.S., set for last Sunday, were cancelled.\n\n\"The delusional American president knows that he cannot impose peace on us by imposing war and threatening us,\" he said.\n\n## Iran agreed to redesign Arak to address nuclear concerns\n\nIsrael's military said its fighter jets targeted the Arak heavy water reactor, some 250 kilometers (155 miles) southwest of Tehran, to prevent it from being used to produce plutonium.\n\nIranian state TV said there was \"no radiation danger whatsoever\" around the Arak site, which it said had been evacuated ahead of the strike.\n\nHeavy water helps cool nuclear reactors, but it produces plutonium as a byproduct that potentially can be used in nuclear weapons. That would provide Iran another path to the bomb beyond enriched uranium, should it choose to pursue the weapon.\n\nIran had agreed under its 2015 nuclear deal with world powers to redesign the facility to alleviate proliferation concerns. That work was never completed.\n\nThe reactor became a point of contention after Trump withdrew from the deal in 2018. Ali Akbar Salehi, a high-ranking nuclear official in Iran, said in 2019 that Tehran bought extra parts to replace a portion of the reactor that it had poured concrete into under the deal.\n\nIsrael said strikes were carried out \"in order to prevent the reactor from being restored and used for nuclear weapons development.\"\n\nThe International Atomic Energy Agency has said that due to restrictions imposed by Iran on inspectors, the U.N. nuclear watchdog has lost \"continuity of knowledge\" about Iran's heavy water production \u2014 meaning it could not absolutely verify Tehran's production and stockpile."}
{"requested_url": "https://apnews.com/article/indianapolis-columbus-1984026d5d245be21879873280586827", "title": "Triple-A International League Glance", "publishing_date": "2025-06-19 03:44:12+00:00", "topics": ["Indianapolis", "Columbus", "Norfolk", "Memphis", "Sports", "Scranton", "World Bank"], "text": "# Triple-A International League Glance\n\nBy The Associated Press  \nJune 19th, 2025, 03:44 AM\n\n---\n\n## Tuesday's Games\n\nDurham 7, Omaha 1\n\nScranton/WB 4, Louisville 3\n\nJacksonville 6, Syracuse 4\n\nWorcester 5, Buffalo 4\n\nRochester 3, Lehigh Valley 1\n\nCharlotte 6, Gwinnett 3\n\nIndianapolis 7, Columbus 2\n\nNashville 9, Iowa 0\n\nNorfolk 7, Memphis 5\n\nToledo 9, St. Paul 8, 11 innings\n\n## Wednesday's Games\n\nLouisville 8, Scranton/WB 1\n\nMemphis 10, Norfolk 7\n\nJacksonville 5, Syracuse 3\n\nBuffalo 14, Worcester 1\n\nRochester 4, Lehigh Valley 0\n\nCharlotte 9, Gwinnett 3\n\nColumbus 4, Indianapolis 3, susp. top of 4th\n\nIowa 5, Nashville 4\n\nDurham 7, Omaha 2\n\nToledo 6, St. Paul 4\n\n## Thursday's Games\n\nColumbus 4, Indianapolis 3, noon, 1st game, completion of susp. game\n\nIndianapolis at Columbus, 12:05 p.m., 2nd game\n\nScranton/WB at Louisville, 6:35 p.m.\n\nJacksonville at Syracuse, 6:35 p.m.\n\nBuffalo at Worcester, 6:45 p.m.\n\nRochester at Lehigh Valley, 6:45 p.m.\n\nGwinnett at Charlotte, 7:04 p.m.\n\nIowa at Nashville, 7:35 p.m.\n\nDurham at Omaha, 8:05 p.m.\n\nNorfolk at Memphis, 8:05 p.m.\n\nToledo at St. Paul, 8:07 p.m.\n\n## Friday's Games\n\nJacksonville at Syracuse, 6:35 p.m.\n\nBuffalo at Worcester, 6:45 p.m.\n\nGwinnett at Charlotte, 7:04 p.m.\n\nIndianapolis at Columbus, 7:05 p.m.\n\nRochester at Lehigh Valley, 7:05 p.m.\n\nScranton/WB at Louisville, 7:15 p.m.\n\nIowa at Nashville, 7:35 p.m.\n\nDurham at Omaha, 8:05 p.m.\n\nNorfolk at Memphis, 8:05 p.m.\n\nToledo at St. Paul, 8:07 p.m."}
{"requested_url": "https://apnews.com/article/greece-folk-icon-chalkias-clarinet-epirus-new-york-13f0a5c5c7db4cdc2eef402293276861", "title": "Greece mourns folk icon Petroloukas Chalkias, a master of the mountain soundscape", "publishing_date": "2025-06-18 15:36:22+00:00", "topics": ["Athens", "Constantine Tassoulas", "Greece", "Folk and Americana", "Celebrity", "New York City", "New York City Wire", "Notable Deaths", "Arts and entertainment", "Louis Armstrong", "Entertainment"], "text": "# Greece mourns folk icon Petroloukas Chalkias, a master of the mountain soundscape\n\nBy Derek Gatopoulos and Petros Giannakouris  \nJune 18th, 2025, 03:36 PM\n\n---\n\nATHENS, Greece (AP) \u2014 Greece is honoring the late clarinetist Petroloukas Chalkias, whose hypnotic, note-bending performances over the course of more than 70 years made him a hero of mountain folk music.\n\nChalkias, who died at 90 over the weekend, lay in state Wednesday at the Athens Cathedral \u2014 a rare honor typically reserved for prime ministers and religious leaders.\n\nAs pallbearers emerged through the doors in a chapel next to the cathedral, carrying the coffin, silence descended. Mourners then clapped and shouted \"immortal\" as musicians played folk tunes. It was a solemn prelude to his funeral which will take place in the rugged highlands of Epirus, in northwest Greece, where he first took up the clarinet as a boy of 11.\n\nGreek President Constantine Tassoulas earlier this week described Chalkias as a \"legendary figure.\"\n\nEpirus' folk music, slowly unfolding and often centered around the clarinet, is steeped in improvisation, with its wanderings inviting comparisons to rural blues and jazz. It's one of the reasons that, while not so distinguished as a recording artist, Chalkias' live performances made him a household name for Greeks young and old alike.\n\nHis style evolved after settling in New York as a young man, joining a wave of musicians who emigrated along with other Greeks to escape the hardship of postwar poverty. Chalkias found an unlikely second stage: dimly-lit clubs filled with Greek emigres and curious outsiders. Among those drawn to his performances were jazz legends Benny Goodman and Louis Armstrong.\n\nMusicians paying their respects on Wednesday praised Chalkias for his generosity with his time in helping fellow artists. \"I was a young woman when I started out and I was incredibly lucky to have him support me,\" folk singer Giota Griva said. \"His influence was immense. He was an artist who will never leave us.\"\n\nBorn Petros Loukas Chalkias, the musician was the son and grandson of clarinet players. He was raised with the region's rich tradition of live music \u2014 an essential part of village festivals, celebrations, and mourning rituals.\n\nDiscouraged at first by a family wary of the musician's path, the young Chalkias fashioned his own makeshift clarinet from a hollow reed, carving its finger holes. By his early teens, his playing \u2014 raw and instinctive, but undeniably gifted \u2014 was good enough to earn him a spot on national radio.\n\nChalkias spent nearly 20 years in the US and raised a family there, but said he always intended to return to Greece. He did so in 1979, performing live across the country and reconnecting with Delvinaki, the red-roofed mountain village of his birth near Greece's border with Albania.\n\nDelvinaki bore deep scars from the devastations of World War II and the civil war that followed. Chalkias, like many of his generation, grew up with interrupted schooling and little formal training. His music was learned by ear and memory, and never performed using sheet music.\n\n\"In the hearts of all Greeks, he stands as the foremost ambassador of our folk song tradition,\" President Tassoulas, also from Epirus, said in a statement. \"Though Petros Loukas Chalkias has departed this life, his voice has not fallen silent \u2013- nor will it ever.\"\n\nChalkias died in Athens. His family did not announce the cause of his death. His funeral will be held at the Church of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary in Delvinaki on Thursday.\n\nHe is survived by a son and a daughter."}
{"requested_url": "https://apnews.com/article/arizona-diamondbacks-toronto-blue-jays-justin-martinez-anthony-santander-athlete-injuries-86817d80b71944e4af4bf02bdae4415e", "title": "Diamondbacks play the Blue Jays looking to stop road slide", "publishing_date": "2025-06-19 08:01:08+00:00", "topics": ["Arizona Diamondbacks", "Toronto Blue Jays", "Justin Martinez", "Anthony Santander", "Athlete injuries", "Baseball", "MLB", "Arizona", "MLB baseball", "A.J. Puk", "Ryan Burr", "Myles Straw", "Ryne Nelson", "Bowden Francis", "Jordan Montgomery", "Nick Sandlin", "Christian Montes De Oca", "Nathan Lukes", "Kevin Gausman", "Angel Bastardo", "Cristian Mena", "Daulton Varsho", "Vladimir Guerrero Jr.", "Alek Manoah", "Ernie Clement", "Jonatan Clase", "Gabriel Moreno", "Kendall Graveman", "Josh Naylor", "Toronto", "Corbin Burnes", "Max Scherzer", "Yimi Garcia", "Sports", "Lourdes Gurriel"], "text": "# Diamondbacks play the Blue Jays looking to stop road slide\n\nBy The Associated Press  \nJune 19th, 2025, 08:01 AM\n\n---\n\nArizona Diamondbacks (36-37, fourth in the NL West) vs. Toronto Blue Jays (40-33, third in the AL East)\n\nToronto; Thursday, 3:07 p.m. EDT\n\nPITCHING PROBABLES: Diamondbacks: Ryne Nelson (3-2, 4.14 ERA, 1.14 WHIP, 41 strikeouts); Blue Jays: Kevin Gausman (5-5, 4.08 ERA, 1.06 WHIP, 80 strikeouts)\n\nBETMGM SPORTSBOOK LINE: Blue Jays -138, Diamondbacks +116; over/under is 8 1/2 runs\n\nBOTTOM LINE: The Arizona Diamondbacks will aim to end their five-game road losing streak in a matchup with the Toronto Blue Jays.\n\nToronto has a 40-33 record overall and a 24-13 record at home. The Blue Jays have a 17-7 record in games when they did not give up a home run.\n\nArizona has a 16-19 record on the road and a 36-37 record overall. Diamondbacks hitters have a collective .441 slugging percentage to rank second in the NL.\n\nThe teams meet Thursday for the third time this season.\n\nTOP PERFORMERS: Vladimir Guerrero Jr. has 15 doubles and nine home runs for the Blue Jays. Ernie Clement is 16 for 43 with four doubles and a home run over the past 10 games.\n\nJosh Naylor has a .305 batting average to lead the Diamondbacks, and has 17 doubles, a triple and nine home runs. Lourdes Gurriel Jr. is 12 for 37 with a home run and four RBIs over the past 10 games.\n\nLAST 10 GAMES: Blue Jays: 6-4, .275 batting average, 5.38 ERA, outscored by five runs\n\nDiamondbacks: 5-5, .238 batting average, 5.31 ERA, outscored by nine runs\n\nINJURIES: Blue Jays: Myles Straw: day-to-day (ankle), Jonatan Clase: day-to-day (knee), Bowden Francis: 15-Day IL (shoulder), Nathan Lukes: 7-Day IL (neck), Daulton Varsho: 10-Day IL (hamstring), Anthony Santander: 10-Day IL (shoulder), Yimi Garcia: 15-Day IL (shoulder), Max Scherzer: 60-Day IL (thumb), Ryan Burr: 60-Day IL (shoulder), Nick Sandlin: 15-Day IL (back), Alek Manoah: 60-Day IL (elbow), Angel Bastardo: 60-Day IL (elbow)\n\nDiamondbacks: Gabriel Moreno: day-to-day (hand), Justin Martinez: 60-Day IL (elbow), Cristian Mena: 60-Day IL (shoulder), Christian Montes De Oca: 15-Day IL (elbow), Kendall Graveman: 15-Day IL (hip), Corbin Burnes: 60-Day IL (elbow), A.J. Puk: 60-Day IL (elbow), Jordan Montgomery: 60-Day IL (elbow), Blake Walston: 60-Day IL (elbow)"}
{"requested_url": "https://apnews.com/article/guardians-giants-score-529fdc4125ee01e3589fcca44077a6cc", "title": "Schneeman hits 3-run homer power the Guardians past Verlander and the Giants, 4-2", "publishing_date": "2025-06-19 04:23:09+00:00", "topics": ["Carlos Santana", "Daniel Schneeman", "Emmanuel Clase", "Cleveland Guardians", "San Francisco Giants", "Baseball", "Ohio", "MLB", "California", "Sports", "Oliver Hirschbiegel", "Logan Allen", "MLB baseball", "Mike Yastrzemski", "Patrick Bailey", "Lane Thomas", "Jose Ramirez", "Gavin Williams", "Matt Festa", "Logan Webb", "Justin Verlander", "San Francisco", "Tim Herrin", "Heliot Ramos", "Tyler Fitzgerald", "Cade Smith"], "text": "# Schneeman hits 3-run homer power the Guardians past Verlander and the Giants, 4-2\n\nBy Michael Wagaman  \nJune 19th, 2025, 04:23 AM\n\n---\n\nSAN FRANCISCO (AP) \u2014 Daniel Schneeman hit a three-run home run to keep Justin Verlander winless in a San Francisco uniform, powering the Cleveland Guardians to a 4-2 victory over the Giants on Wednesday night.\n\nVerlander (0-4) allowed four runs (three earned) in 4 2/3 innings after being activated off the Injured List earlier in the day. The nine-time All-Star gave up seven hits and had six strikeouts in his first start since May 18.\n\nKyle Manzardo doubled twice and Jose Ramirez added an RBI-single to help the Guardians clinch their first series win in San Francisco since 2005. Heliot Ramos homered for the Giants.\n\nSchneeman's home run, his first since May 27, came on an 0-2 fastball from Verlander in the fourth. Carlos Santana reached on a fielding error by second baseman Tyler Fitzgerald and Lane Thomas singled before Schneeman's homer.\n\nLogan Allen (5-4) gave up two runs and four hits in 5 1/3 innings to get the win for the Guardians.\n\nMatt Festa and Tim Herrin each retired three batters, Cade Smith set down two and Emmanuel Clase got Patrick Bailey to strike out looking in the ninth for his 16th save.\n\n## Key moment\n\nAfter the Giants' Mike Yastrzemski drew a one-out walk in the seventh then advanced to second on a balk by Cade Smith, Smith worked out of the jam and retired Patrick Bailey and Ramos on consecutive swinging strikeouts.\n\n## Key stat\n\nThe Giants got their leadoff hitter on base in four innings and failed to score each time.\n\n## Up next\n\nGiants ace RHP Logan Webb (6-5, 2.58 ERA) was set to face Guardians RHP Gavin Williams (5-3, 3.89) in the series finale Thursday."}
{"requested_url": "https://apnews.com/article/immigration-new-jersey-delaney-hall-escape-c93ae6138470039fa0619d2e9a9846fa", "title": "Officials arrest 1 of 2 detainees still missing from New Jersey immigration facility", "publishing_date": "2025-06-17 15:37:05+00:00", "topics": ["New Jersey", "Franklin Norberto Bautista-Reyes", "Andres Felipe Pineda-Mogollon", "New York City", "Donald Trump", "Delaney Hall", "Joel Enrique Sandoval-Lopez", "Ras Baraka", "Law enforcement", "Crime", "U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation", "Prisons", "Immigration", "New York City Wire", "New York", "Protests and demonstrations", "Andy Kim", "Politics", "Burglary", "Joan Sebastian", "U.S. Department of Homeland Security", "Amy Thoreson", "United States government", "Tricia McLaughlin"], "text": "# Officials arrest 1 of 2 detainees still missing from New Jersey immigration facility\n\nBy Mike Catalini  \nJune 17th, 2025, 03:37 PM\n\n---\n\nOne of the two detainees still missing after escaping from a New Jersey federal immigration detention center has been arrested, the FBI said Tuesday.\n\nFranklin Norberto Bautista-Reyes, from Honduras, has been taken into custody, FBI spokesperson Amy Thoreson said in an email. Andres Felipe Pineda-Mogollon, from Colombia, is still missing from Thursday night's escape, the bureau said.\n\nBautista-Reyes and Pineda-Mogollon and two other men busted out of the Delaney Hall detention center in Newark during reports of disorder there by breaking through a wall and escaping from a parking lot, according to U.S. Sen. Andy Kim, a New Jersey Democrat, and Homeland Security officials.\n\nAll four men were in the country illegally and had been charged by local police in New Jersey and New York City, federal officials said.\n\nBautista-Reyes was charged in May with aggravated assault, attempt to cause bodily injury, terroristic threats and a weapon crime. Pineda-Mogollon, from Colombia, was charged with minor larceny and burglary crimes.\n\nThe details surrounding Bautista-Reyes' capture were not immediately clear. Messages seeking information were sent to the FBI and the Homeland Security Department, which oversees Immigration and Customs Enforcement.\n\nHomeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement that they were grateful to law enforcement for apprehending the men.\n\nThe FBI on Monday had increased the reward for information leading to their arrest to $25,000 from $10,000.\n\nJoel Enrique Sandoval-Lopez, one of the other fugitives, was taken into custody in Passaic, New Jersey, on Friday, the day after the escape in nearby Newark. Then, on Sunday, Joan Sebastian Castaneda-Lozada surrendered to federal authorities in Milleville, New Jersey. Sandoval-Lopez, from Honduras, was charged with unlawful possession of a handgun in October and aggravated assault in February, officials said. Castaneda-Lozada, from Colombia, was charged with burglary, theft and conspiracy, authorities said.\n\nIt's unclear who may be representing the men. The New Jersey Office of the Public Defender declined to comment on the development.\n\nNewark Mayor Ras Baraka, a Democrat who has been critical of President Donald Trump's immigration crackdown, cited reports of a possible uprising and escape after disorder broke out at the facility Thursday night and protesters outside the center locked arms and pushed against barricades as vehicles passed through gates. Much is still unclear about what unfolded there, but later on Tuesday the FBI released details in a statement charging the four men with escape.\n\nThe men broke through an aluminum wall on the second story of the facility and dropped mattresses through an opening, giving them a place to jump, the FBI said. They used bedsheets to cover barbed wire to get over the fence, according to the bureau.\n\nGEO Group, the company that owns and operates the detention facility for the federal government, said in a statement last week that there was \"no widespread unrest\" at the facility.\n\nDelaney Hall has been the site of clashes this year between Democratic officials who say the facility needs more oversight and the Trump administration and those who run the facility.\n\nBaraka was arrested May 9, handcuffed and charged with trespassing. The charge was later dropped. But U.S. Democratic Rep. LaMonica McIver was later charged with assaulting federal officers stemming from a skirmish that happened outside the facility. She has denied the charges."}
{"requested_url": "https://apnews.com/article/pelicans-pacers-trade-nba-draft-0b8df8b11d78f8393fc50ab213e592b0", "title": "Pelicans acquire a second 2025 first-round draft pick from the Pacers in exchange for a 2026 pick", "publishing_date": "2025-06-17 19:37:04+00:00", "topics": ["Indiana Pacers", "Pascal Siakam", "Brandon Ingram", "New Orleans Pelicans", "NBA Draft", "New Orleans", "NBA Playoffs", "NBA", "Louisiana", "Indiana", "NBA basketball", "Sports"], "text": "# Pelicans acquire a second 2025 first-round draft pick from the Pacers in exchange for a 2026 pick\n\nBy Brett Martel  \nJune 17th, 2025, 07:37 PM\n\n---\n\nNEW ORLEANS (AP) \u2014 The Indiana Pacers have agreed to trade their 23rd overall choice in next week's NBA draft to New Orleans for a 2026 first-round pick, the Pelicans announced Tuesday.\n\nThe deal gives the Pelicans two first-round picks \u2014 the seventh and 23rd overall \u2014 in the draft, raising the prospect that New Orleans could package both in a deal to move up in the first round next Wednesday.\n\nThe Pelicans also will receive the rights to Mojave King, a 2023 second-round draft choice who has played for Indiana's G League affiliate as well as overseas in Puerto Rico and New Zealand.\n\nThe Pacers are getting back a 2026 pick they had traded to the Toronto Raptors in a 2024 deal sending Pascal Siakam to Indiana. Last February, Toronto dealt that pick to New Orleans as part of a trade that sent Brandon Ingram to the Raptors.\n\nThe Pacers are the reigning Eastern Conference champions and currently trail the Oklahoma City Thunder, 3-2, in the best-of-seven NBA Finals, with Game 6 scheduled for Thursday in Indianapolis."}
{"requested_url": "https://apnews.com/article/florida-college-athletes-nil-house-settlement-funding-7ecc2f026b894da4c75b265b554e368f", "title": "Florida officials let public universities free up millions to pay student-athletes", "publishing_date": "2025-06-18 21:46:07+00:00", "topics": ["College sports", "Florida", "Florida Gators", "Sports", "Kate Payne", "Education", "Florida state government", "Alan Levine", "Kentucky Wildcats"], "text": "# Florida officials let public universities free up millions to pay student-athletes\n\nBy Kate Payne  \nJune 18th, 2025, 09:46 PM\n\n---\n\nTALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) \u2014 Florida's public universities can free up $22.5 million a year to compensate student-athletes under an emergency rule approved by a state board Wednesday ahead of a landmark legal settlement allowing schools to pay their players through licensing deals.\n\nThe sprawling $2.8 billion antitrust settlement, going into effect July 1, allows schools to directly pay their pay their players for the use of their name, image and likeness. It's upending the way college sports have been run for more than a century and has sent universities across the country scrambling for new revenue streams in the hopes of gaining an edge \u2014 or at least keeping pace \u2014 in the rapidly evolving and highly competitive field of college athletics.\n\nPublic universities in Florida, which is home to some of the country's most high-profile college sports teams, will now be able to dip into the funding reserves of campus auxiliary programs like bookstores, food service, student housing and parking in order to cut checks to student-athletes. Under the policy approved Wednesday, the funds can be issued as a transfer or a loan.\n\n\"Athletic departments are already currently recruiting student-athletes for fall 2025, and they need clarity on the available funding to retain and recruit the best talent for their rosters,\" said Alan Levine, vice chair of the board of governors, which oversees Florida's state universities. \"If the universities cannot react to the settlement immediately, there will be irreparable harm to the athletic programs and to the financial welfare of our institutions.\"\n\nFlorida's emergency rule goes into effect immediately and will last 90 days, at which point the board of governors can reassess the issue.\n\nOther schools are also taking actions because of deficits in their athletic departments. Last week, University of Kentucky trustees approved a $31 million operating loan for the athletics department as it begins making direct payments to athletes.\n\nMeanwhile, Louisiana is poised to hike taxes on sports betting to pump more than $24 million into athletic departments. And Arkansas this year became the first to waive state income taxes on payments made to athletes by higher education institutions."}
{"requested_url": "https://apnews.com/article/donald-trump-flagpoles-a0928efcdcb6d1362a0e1827e96d0344", "title": "Trump installs new flagpoles on White House lawns", "publishing_date": "2025-06-18 21:38:53+00:00", "topics": ["Donald Trump", "Iran", "Mar-a-Lago", "Politics"], "text": "# Trump installs new flagpoles on White House lawns\n\nBy Chris Megerian and Darlene Superville  \nJune 18th, 2025, 09:38 PM\n\n---\n\nWASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 The American flag has long flown from a pole on the White House roof, but that's always been too small for President Donald Trump, who wants everything to be bigger and more beautiful.\n\nOn Wednesday, massive new flagpoles were erected on the North and South Lawns of the White House.\n\n\"It's such a beautiful pole,\" Trump said as workers used a crane to install the latest addition to the South Lawn. He returned to the same spot later in the day, saluting as the stars and stripes were hoisted for the first time.\n\nThe second pole, on the North Lawn, is close to Pennsylvania Avenue. The two poles are the most notable exterior modification to the White House since Trump returned to the presidency with grand ideas for remaking the building.\n\nHe's already updated the Oval Office, adding gold accents, more portraits and a copy of the Declaration of Independence. Workers have begun paving over the grass in the Rose Garden, and there are plans to construct a new ballroom somewhere on the White House grounds. The changes bring the iconic building more in line with Mar-a-Lago, Trump's private club in Florida.\n\nThe president made time to watch one of the flagpole installations despite the escalating conflict between Iran and Israel, plus questions of whether the U.S. would become directly involved.\n\n\"I love construction,\" said Trump, who made his mark as a New York real estate developer. \"I know it better than anybody.\"\n\nHe talked about how the pole went down nine feet deep for stability, and the rope would be contained inside the cylinder, unlike the one at Mar-a-Lago. When the wind blows, \"you hear that rope, banging.\"\n\n\"This is the real deal,\" he said. \"This is the best you can get. There's nothing like this.\""}
{"requested_url": "https://apnews.com/article/cws-arkansas-razorbacks-lsu-tigers-1afa1cf7bbb34215ec861dbc91f27501", "title": "LSU capitalizes on big break in 9th for a 6-5 walk-off win over Arkansas", "publishing_date": "2025-06-19 02:48:26+00:00", "topics": ["Louisiana State Tigers", "College baseball", "College World Series", "Luis Hernandez", "Arkansas", "Arkansas Razorbacks", "College sports", "Coastal Carolina Chanticleers", "Justin Thomas", "Detroit Tigers", "Nebraska", "Louisiana", "Sports", "Tommy White", "Jared Jones", "Jacob Mayers", "Charles Davalan", "Cam Kozeal", "Steven Milam", "Dave Van Horn", "Zac Cowan"], "text": "# LSU capitalizes on big break in 9th for a 6-5 walk-off win over Arkansas\n\nBy Eric Olson  \nJune 19th, 2025, 02:48 AM\n\n---\n\nOMAHA, Neb. (AP) \u2014 Jared Jones hit a line drive that glanced off a glove for the winning run moments after LSU got a big break to tie the game, and the Tigers posted a 6-5 walk-off victory over SEC rival Arkansas on Wednesday night to advance to the College World Series finals.\n\nThe Tigers (51-15) will play for their second national championship in three years when they square off against Coastal Carolina in the best-of-three finals starting Saturday. The Chanticleers locked up their spot with an 11-3 win over Louisville on Wednesday.\n\nIt's been quite a turnaround for Jones, who struck out five times in the Tigers' 4-1 win over Arkansas in their CWS opener. In the last two games, he's 5 for 9 with six RBIs and two homers.\n\n\"I've spent so much time and effort in this sport throughout my life,\" Jones said. \"My parents have sacrificed so much to get me to this point. And my teammates, I was up sixth or seventh in the ninth inning, so there had to be a lot that had to go right for us to put me in that position. I'm just super grateful for it all and wouldn't have it any other way.\"\n\nArkansas (50-15) took a two-run lead in the top of the ninth on Justin Thomas' tie-breaking single and looked ready to force a second bracket final against the Tigers on Thursday. Instead, the Razorbacks' season ended in heartbreak in Omaha again.\n\nThe Tigers beat Arkansas for the fourth time in five meetings this season, including 4-1 last Saturday in the teams' CWS opener. They are 5-0 all-time in CWS meetings with the Razorbacks.\n\nLSU put two men on base with one out in the bottom of the ninth against Cole Gibler (3-2). Steven Milam grounded to short, and Wehiwa Aloy opted to get the lead runner at third rather than try for a game-ending double play.\n\n\"I talked to him about it,\" Arkansas coach Dave Van Horn said. \"He felt he moved too far to his right to turn it.\"\n\nLuis Hernandez came up and sent a hard liner to left. Charles Davalan slipped as he broke for the ball and it deflected off his right shoulder. Davalan chased the ball down as Ethan Frey and Milam scored easily.\n\n\"It was hit hard obviously, and it was hooking and sinking,\" Van Horn said. \"It looked like Charles slipped taking off for it and when he took off he lost sight of it.\"\n\nJones, whose team-best 22nd homer of the season had tied it 3-all in the eighth, shot a line drive up the middle that bounced off second baseman Cam Kozeal's glove. Hernandez scored from second ahead of the throw home, setting off an LSU celebration in center field.\n\nLSU coach Jay Johnson said the moment was reminiscent of two years ago when Tommy White's 11th-inning, walk-off homer against Wake Forest sent the Tigers to the finals against Florida.\n\n\"I said this literally probably probably two years ago to the day, the walk-off homer, Tommy against Wake Forest, I felt something in my body I've never felt before. Greatest moment in my life,\" Johnson said. \"It now has a tie for first, with the ninth inning with Jared Jones, line drive over the second baseman's head. And Luis Hernandez, hustling around second base.\"\n\nJacob Mayers (2-0), the fourth LSU pitcher, worked two-thirds of an inning for the win. Zac Cowan gave the Tigers a season-long 5 1/3 innings in his second start of the season and allowed one run on four hits. He walked none and struck out six.\n\nGut-wrenching losses in Omaha are nothing new for Arkansas. The Razorbacks were one out away from winning the 2018 national championship in the second game of the finals against Oregon State. What should have been a game-ending pop foul dropped between three Arkansas fielders. Oregon State went on to win that game and the next to take the title.\n\nThis was Arkansas' 12th CWS appearance and eighth under Van Horn, and the Razorbacks are tied with Clemson and North Carolina for second-most trips to Omaha without winning the title. Florida State is first at 24."}
{"requested_url": "https://apnews.com/article/indiana-indiana-fever-2b136671378b47c2a16fc9a32bdb4939", "title": "Clark leads Indiana against Golden State after 20-point game", "publishing_date": "2025-06-18 06:09:18+00:00", "topics": ["Indiana", "Indiana Fever", "California", "NWSL soccer", "Sports", "Caitlin Clark"], "text": "# Clark leads Indiana against Golden State after 20-point game\n\nBy The Associated Press  \nJune 18th, 2025, 06:09 AM\n\n---\n\nIndiana Fever (6-5, 6-5 Eastern Conference) at Golden State Valkyries (5-6, 4-4 Western Conference)\n\nSan Francisco; Thursday, 10 p.m. EDT\n\nBOTTOM LINE: Indiana Fever visits the Golden State Valkyries after Caitlin Clark scored 20 points in the Fever's 88-71 win against the Connecticut Sun.\n\nGolden State hits the court for the 12th game in franchise history. The Valkyries fell to the Dallas Wings 80-71 in their last game.\n\nIndiana went 8-12 on the road and 20-20 overall last season. The Fever gave up 87.7 points per game while committing 18.2 fouls last season.\n\nINJURIES: Valkyries: None listed.\n\nFever: None listed."}
{"requested_url": "https://apnews.com/article/sri-lanka-bangladesh-cricket-1st-test-e48001d606f59ec7809461cfd139e4e1", "title": "Mushfiqur's 163 leads Bangladesh to 484-9 against Sri Lanka", "publishing_date": "2025-06-18 07:04:48+00:00", "topics": ["Cricket", "Sri Lanka", "Bangladesh", "Asia Pacific", "South Asia", "Mohammad Salahuddin", "Sports", "Angelo Mathews", "Usman Khawaja"], "text": "# Mushfiqur's 163 leads Bangladesh to 484-9 against Sri Lanka\n\nJune 18th, 2025, 07:04 AM\n\n---\n\nGALLE, Sri Lanka (AP) \u2014 Mushfiqur Rahim posted a masterful 163 Wednesday as Bangladesh piled up 484 for nine on a rain-curtailed Day 2 of the first cricket test against Sri Lanka.\n\nMushfiqur batted for more than eight hours and faced 350 deliveries in innings that blended stout defense with the occasional flourish.\n\nIn a post-tea spell Bangladesh lost five wickets for 26 runs, giving Sri Lanka some hope.\n\nBangladesh has beaten Sri Lanka just once in 26 previous test attempts but is now in prime position to add another victory after tallying its fourth-highest total against Sri Lanka.\n\nOn a pitch that's expected to break up, Mushfiqur combined in two crucial partnerships that wrested the momentum away from the hosts.\n\nThe first was a record-breaking 264-run partnership with captain Najmul Hossain Shanto, who was in sublime touch during his innings of 148. Shanto, though, fell against the run of play \u2014 lured into a false stroke by Asitha Fernando and holing out to mid-off, where Angelo Mathews took a sharp catch.\n\nUndeterred, Mushfiqur forged another valuable stand \u2014 this time worth 149 runs \u2014 with Litton Das, whose shot-making added zip to the innings. However, both set batters were dismissed within nine deliveries just as they threatened to push Bangladesh past 500.\n\nSri Lanka resorted to bowling a negative line, peppering the leg-side and starving the batters of scoring opportunities. Das was duly dismissed trying to reverse sweep spinner Tharindu Rathnayake \u2014 a top edge ballooning to the wicketkeeper.\n\nThe old ball started reverse swinging and brought some late success for the hosts. Milan Rathnayake, the bustling right-arm seamer, picked up three wickets in a spell after the tea interval as Bangladesh lost five wickets for 26 runs \u2014 a collapse that gave Sri Lanka some hope.\n\n\"It's a tough wicket for the bowlers, but I guess we did a decent job especially in the last hour where we got back into the game with quick strikes,\" Rathnayake said. \"We have a very strong batting lineup and hopefully we will get a lead.\"\n\nFernando, fresh off a county stint with Glamorgan, returned three wickets as well. Though not operating at full speed following a recent illness, he showed why he's Sri Lanka's pace spearhead, mixing up sharp bouncers with pinpoint yorkers to good effect.\n\nTharindu Rathnayake, making his test debut, had three wickets to his name.\n\nDespite Sri Lanka's late rally, the day belonged to Mushfiqur, who revels in the conditions at Galle and has tallied 482 runs in four innings at the venue. Only Pakistan's Younis Khan (497) and Australia's Usman Khawaja (490) have scored more at the ground among visiting batters.\n\n\"Mushfiqur is someone who can genuinely inspire the team,\" said Mohammad Salahuddin, Bangladesh catching coach. \"Even though he hasn't been scoring runs in the last few matches, his work ethic, constant desire to improve and the character he consistently shows in the dressing room \u2014 these are all qualities you want from a senior player.\""}
{"requested_url": "https://apnews.com/article/air-india-crash-ahmedabad-dreamliner-boeing-tata-25102fbb58822ea572b00fa3da048682", "title": "Air India faces disruptions as crash prompts flight delays", "publishing_date": "2025-06-18 12:53:57+00:00", "topics": ["Plane crashes", "India", "Ahmedabad", "United Kingdom", "Middle East", "Asia Pacific", "South Asia", "Business", "United States government", "United Kingdom government", "Aviation safety", "The Boeing Co."], "text": "# Air India faces disruptions as crash prompts flight delays\n\nBy Rajesh Roy  \nJune 18th, 2025, 12:53 PM\n\n---\n\nNEW DELHI (AP) \u2014 Air India is facing disruptions following last week's fatal crash as additional safety inspections on its Dreamliner fleet have led to flight delays, cancellations and growing passenger anxiety.\n\nIndia's aviation safety regulator ordered deeper checks on Boeing 787 aircrafts operated by the airline soon after its London-bound flight crashed during take-off in Ahmedabad city June 12, killing at least 270 people, including 241 passengers and crew.\n\nThe precautionary inspections, as well as the closure of airspace in some Middle Eastern countries, have strained Air India operations across domestic and international routes.\n\nSince the crash, Air India has cancelled operations for 83 wide-body flights, including 66 Dreamliners, according to data shared by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation, India's aviation safety regulator.\n\nIn a statement late Wednesday, Air India said wide-body aircraft service would remain curtailed by 15% until mid-July because of the unfolding conflict in the Middle East and the additional inspections. The airline said it would inform affected passengers and try to accommodate them with alternate flights. The \"curtailments are a painful measure to take, but are necessary,\" the airline said.\n\nThe airline is performing an even greater number of checks than required, which has had a cascading impact on operations, a company executive familiar with the matter said on condition of anonymity as he wasn't authorized to speak to the media. The airline said in its statement that it has decided to also inspect all of its Boeing 777 airplanes in its fleet even though that model wasn't involved in the crash.\n\nThe cuts in the flight schedule will allow Air India to keep more planes in reserve to deal with any unplanned disruptions.\n\nThe company on Tuesday announced the cancellation of multiple flights, including one from Ahmedabad to London Gatwick. Another from Delhi to Paris was cancelled when a mandatory pre-flight check raised an issue, the airline said in a statement. The issue was not identified.\n\nIn a statement Tuesday, the aviation directorate said surveillance conducted on Air India's Dreamliner fleet so far has found no \"major safety concerns.\"\n\nThe aircrafts and their associated maintenance systems were found to be compliant with existing safety standards, the directorate said, adding that of the 33 planes, 24 have completed the inspections, while four were undergoing long-term maintenance. The rest were expected to finish the safety checks soon.\n\nThe regulator advised the airline to \"strictly adhere to regulations,\" and asked it to strengthen internal coordination across engineering, operations and ground handling units and ensure adequate availability of spares to mitigate flight delays.\n\nExperts from India's Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau are probing the crash with assistance from the U.K., the U.S. and officials from Boeing.\n\nSome aviation experts see the crash as a temporary setback for Air India as it transforms from a financially troubled state-owned carrier to a privately owned company with ambitions for broad expansion.\n\n\"If you ask me whether the accident will derail the ambitious growth plans, no way. There can be no looking back,\" said Jitender Bhargava, a former Air India executive director.\n\nThe company already has placed huge orders for new aircrafts. Its present challenge is to boost the morale of employees and passengers through confidence building measures, Bhargava said.\n\n\"The faster you make people forget this one-off accident, the better it is,\" Bhargava said.\n\nIndian conglomerate Tata Sons took over Air India in 2022, returning the debt-saddled national carrier to private ownership after decades of government control. The $2.4 billion deal was seen as the government's effort to sell off a loss-making, state-run businesses. It also was in some ways a homecoming for Air India, which was launched by the Tata family in 1932.\n\nSince the takeover, Air India has ordered hundreds of new planes worth over $70 billion, redesigned its branding and livery and absorbed smaller airlines Tata held stakes in. The company additionally has committed millions of dollars to digital overhauls of aircrafts and refurbishing interiors of more than five dozen legacy planes."}
{"requested_url": "https://apnews.com/article/wings-hardship-contracts-wnba-2f1489579e397ac0c589b1940029b284", "title": "Dallas Wings sign Kaila Charles and Haley Jones to hardship contracts", "publishing_date": "2025-06-17 17:11:01+00:00", "topics": ["Haley Jones", "Kaila Charles", "Dallas Wings", "Natasha Mack", "Luisa Geiselsoder", "WNBA", "Sports transactions", "Athlete injuries", "Texas", "California", "Tyasha Harris", "Teaira McCowan", "Sports", "Alyssa Thomas", "WNBA basketball", "Li Yueru", "Maddy Siegrist"], "text": "# Dallas Wings sign Kaila Charles and Haley Jones to hardship contracts\n\nJune 17th, 2025, 05:11 PM\n\n---\n\nARLINGTON, Texas (AP) \u2014 The Dallas Wings signed Kaila Charles and Haley Jones to hardship contracts Tuesday because the team had only eight available players before the two were added to the roster.\n\nCharles and Jones were both expected to be available to play for the Wings (1-11) in their home game against Golden State on Tuesday night.\n\nWings centers Teaira McCowan and Luisa Geiselsoder are away fulfilling national team obligations. Tyasha Harris and Maddy Siegrist are both out with knee injuries.\n\nWNBA teams qualify for hardship exemption when they have fewer than 10 available players.\n\nJames has played 11 games this season for Dallas, but she was waived Saturday to create a roster spot after the acquisition of center Li Yueru from Seattle in a trade for two future draft picks.\n\nJones was with Phoenix for four games earlier this season as a hardship signee before being released on June 8 when Alyssa Thomas and Natasha Mack rejoined the Mercury. Jones spent the past two seasons with Atlanta."}
{"requested_url": "https://apnews.com/article/washington-nationals-colorado-rockies-illinois-andrew-chafin-kris-bryant-96cc147d4bd249bd8e42550fd1085fd5", "title": "Rockies try to keep win streak alive against the Nationals", "publishing_date": "2025-06-18 07:59:59+00:00", "topics": ["Washington Nationals", "Colorado Rockies", "Illinois", "Andrew Chafin", "Kris Bryant", "Thairo Estrada", "Athlete injuries", "Colorado", "DC Wire", "MLB", "District of Columbia", "James Wood", "Ryan Feltner", "MLB baseball", "Sports", "Josiah Gray", "German Marquez", "Ezequiel Tovar", "Hunter Goodman", "Kyle Freeland", "CJ Abrams", "Jeff Criswell", "Dylan Crews", "Mason Thompson", "Orlando Ribalta", "Derek Law", "Mitchell Parker", "Paul DeJong"], "text": "# Rockies try to keep win streak alive against the Nationals\n\nBy The Associated Press  \nJune 18th, 2025, 07:59 AM\n\n---\n\nColorado Rockies (16-57, fifth in the NL West) vs. Washington Nationals (30-43, fourth in the NL East)\n\nWashington; Wednesday, 6:45 p.m. EDT\n\nPITCHING PROBABLES: Rockies: German Marquez (2-8, 6.62 ERA, 1.66 WHIP, 48 strikeouts); Nationals: Mitchell Parker (4-7, 4.96 ERA, 1.34 WHIP, 50 strikeouts)\n\nBETMGM SPORTSBOOK LINE: Nationals -171, Rockies +142; over/under is 9 runs\n\nBOTTOM LINE: The Colorado Rockies will attempt to extend a three-game win streak with a victory against the Washington Nationals.\n\nWashington has gone 15-23 at home and 30-43 overall. The Nationals have hit 70 total home runs to rank ninth in the NL.\n\nColorado has gone 9-30 on the road and 16-57 overall. The Rockies have hit 71 total home runs to rank eighth in the NL.\n\nWednesday's game is the sixth time these teams square off this season. The Rockies are up 3-2 in the season series.\n\nTOP PERFORMERS: James Wood has a .281 batting average to lead the Nationals, and has 18 doubles and 18 home runs. C.J. Abrams is 12 for 37 with a home run and three RBIs over the last 10 games.\n\nHunter Goodman leads the Rockies with a .285 batting average, and has 16 doubles, three triples, 14 home runs, 14 walks and 46 RBIs. Thairo Estrada is 13 for 44 with a home run and five RBIs over the last 10 games.\n\nLAST 10 GAMES: Nationals: 0-10, .229 batting average, 5.42 ERA, outscored by 25 runs\n\nRockies: 4-6, .273 batting average, 6.95 ERA, outscored by 14 runs\n\nINJURIES: Nationals: Andrew Chafin: 15-Day IL (hamstring), Dylan Crews: 10-Day IL (back), Paul DeJong: 10-Day IL (face), Orlando Ribalta: 15-Day IL (biceps), Derek Law: 15-Day IL (forearm), DJ Herz: 60-Day IL (elbow), Mason Thompson: 60-Day IL (elbow), Josiah Gray: 60-Day IL (elbow)\n\nRockies: Thairo Estrada: day-to-day (hand), Ryan Feltner: 60-Day IL (back), Kyle Freeland: 15-Day IL (back), Ezequiel Tovar: 10-Day IL (oblique), Tanner Gordon: 15-Day IL (oblique), Kris Bryant: 60-Day IL (lumbar), Jeff Criswell: 60-Day IL (elbow)"}
{"requested_url": "https://apnews.com/article/atlanta-braves-new-york-mets-illinois-danny-young-jose-siri-507768aa13564b4bb5aabd8bf2f04c01", "title": "Mets aim to break skid in matchup with the Braves", "publishing_date": "2025-06-18 08:00:00+00:00", "topics": ["Atlanta Braves", "New York Mets", "Illinois", "Danny Young", "Jose Siri", "Sean Manaea", "Chris Sale", "Frankie Montas", "Juan Soto", "Pete Alonso", "New York City", "MLB", "New York City Wire", "New York", "Georgia", "Kodai Senga", "Ronald Acuna", "Marcell Ozuna", "Athlete injuries", "Brett Baty", "Sports", "Tylor Megill", "Mark Vientos", "Drew Smith", "Nick Madrigal", "Brooks Raley", "AJ Smith-Shawver", "Daysbel Hernandez", "Jesse Winker", "Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah", "MLB baseball", "Paul Blackburn", "Joe Jimenez", "Reynaldo Lopez", "A.J. Minter"], "text": "# Mets aim to break skid in matchup with the Braves\n\nBy The Associated Press  \nJune 18th, 2025, 08:00 AM\n\n---\n\nNew York Mets (45-28, first in the NL East) vs. Atlanta Braves (32-39, third in the NL East)\n\nAtlanta; Wednesday, 7:15 p.m. EDT\n\nPITCHING PROBABLES: Mets: Paul Blackburn (0-0, 6.75 ERA, 1.71 WHIP, six strikeouts); Braves: Chris Sale (4-4, 2.79 ERA, 1.22 WHIP, 107 strikeouts)\n\nBETMGM SPORTSBOOK LINE: Braves -182, Mets +151; over/under is 8 1/2 runs\n\nBOTTOM LINE: The New York Mets enter the matchup with the Atlanta Braves after losing four straight games.\n\nAtlanta has a 32-39 record overall and a 20-15 record in home games. The Braves have a 22-4 record in games when they scored at least five runs.\n\nNew York has a 45-28 record overall and an 18-18 record in road games. The Mets have the eighth-ranked team batting average in the NL at .247.\n\nThe teams meet Wednesday for the second time this season.\n\nTOP PERFORMERS: Marcell Ozuna has eight doubles, 11 home runs and 38 RBIs while hitting .257 for the Braves. Ronald Acuna is 16 for 34 with a double and three home runs over the past 10 games.\n\nPete Alonso leads the Mets with a .296 batting average, and has 22 doubles, a triple, 17 home runs, 35 walks and 63 RBIs. Juan Soto is 14 for 35 with three home runs and six RBIs over the past 10 games.\n\nLAST 10 GAMES: Braves: 5-5, .244 batting average, 3.36 ERA, outscored opponents by seven runs\n\nMets: 6-4, .261 batting average, 3.75 ERA, outscored opponents by eight runs\n\nINJURIES: Braves: Daysbel Hernandez: 15-Day IL (arm), AJ Smith-Shawver: 60-Day IL (calf/elbow), Reynaldo Lopez: 60-Day IL (shoulder), Joe Jimenez: 60-Day IL (knee)\n\nMets: Tylor Megill: 15-Day IL (elbow), Brett Baty: day-to-day (groin), Kodai Senga: 15-Day IL (hamstring), Brooks Raley: 60-Day IL (elbow), Mark Vientos: 10-Day IL (hamstring), Jesse Winker: 10-Day IL (side), Danny Young: 60-Day IL (elbow), A.J. Minter: 60-Day IL (lat), Frankie Montas: 60-Day IL (lat), Sean Manaea: 60-Day IL (oblique), Jose Siri: 10-Day IL (shin), Nick Madrigal: 60-Day IL (shoulder), Drew Smith: 60-Day IL (elbow), Christian Scott: 60-Day IL (elbow)"}
{"requested_url": "https://apnews.com/article/elijah-ellis-chargers-fd8b8b88a9dc679b01f5f2e12c1c24fe", "title": "Chargers sign offensive lineman Elijah Ellis and waive tackle Tyler McLellan", "publishing_date": "2025-06-18 01:47:53+00:00", "topics": ["Tyler McLellan", "Los Angeles Chargers", "West Virginia", "California", "NFL", "Sports", "NFL football", "Seniors", "Baylor Bears"], "text": "# Chargers sign offensive lineman Elijah Ellis and waive tackle Tyler McLellan\n\nJune 18th, 2025, 01:47 AM\n\n---\n\nEL SEGUNDO, Calif. (AP) \u2014 The Los Angeles Chargers signed offensive lineman Elijah Ellis on Tuesday and waived tackle Tyler McLellan.\n\nEllis started all 13 games at left tackle as a senior at Marshall University last year. He helped the Thundering Herd average nearly 32 points a game and be among the nation's top 20 rushing teams.\n\nHe transferred to Marshall after spending his first three seasons at Baylor, where he played nine games from 2021-23."}
{"requested_url": "https://apnews.com/article/tampa-bay-rays-sale-e413d35b68f3def6281e8f6ed8199653", "title": "Tampa Bay Rays say they are in talks for a potential sale", "publishing_date": "2025-06-18 17:37:29+00:00", "topics": ["Tampa Bay Rays", "MLB Spring Training", "Stuart Sternberg", "New York Yankees", "Baseball", "Florida", "MLB", "Business", "Sports", "Bill Cosgrove", "MLB baseball", "Patrick Zalupski", "Ken Welch"], "text": "# Tampa Bay Rays say they are in talks for a potential sale\n\nJune 18th, 2025, 05:37 PM\n\n---\n\nST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) \u2014 The Tampa Bay Rays say they are in \"exclusive discussions\" with a Florida investment group for a potential sale of the team.\n\nThe Rays are valued at $1.25 billion, according to Forbes magazine. Stuart Sternberg bought the Major League Baseball club for $200 million in 2004.\n\n\"The Tampa Bay Rays announced that the team has recently commenced exclusive discussions with a group led by Patrick Zalupski, Bill Cosgrove, Ken Babby and prominent Tampa Bay investors concerning a possible sale of the team,\" the club said Wednesday while declining further comment.\n\nThe potential sale comes at a precarious time for the Rays and their home ballpark. They are playing this season at the spring training home of the New York Yankees in Tampa after the roof of Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg was heavily damaged during Hurricane Milton last October.\n\nBefore the hurricane, the Rays and the city had agreed on a plan for a $1.3 billion stadium development project next to Tropicana Field. In March, Sternberg said the club was withdrawing from that agreement.\n\nSt. Petersburg is spending about $55 million to repair Tropicana Field with a plan for the Rays to return there in 2026. The city and the club have a three-year agreement to play there. Beyond that, the club's future in the Tampa Bay area is uncertain.\n\nWhen the Rays withdrew from the project, the city noted that it was possible the club would have new owners.\n\n\"If in the coming months a new owner, who demonstrates a commitment to honoring their agreements and our community priorities emerges, we will consider a partnership to keep baseball in St. Pete,\" Mayor Ken Welch said in March. \"But we will not put our city's progress on hold as we await a collaborative and community-focused baseball partner.\""}
{"requested_url": "https://apnews.com/article/alex-rodriguez-cody-bellinger-pete-rose-new-york-yankees-los-angeles-dodgers-ef55d94c65f30e30052bf8dd87ed04ca", "title": "This Date in Baseball - Alex Rodriguez homers for his 3,000th career hit", "publishing_date": "2025-06-18 14:10:39+00:00", "topics": ["Alex Rodriguez", "Cody Bellinger", "Pete Rose", "New York Yankees", "Los Angeles Dodgers", "Cincinnati Reds", "Atlanta Braves", "Baseball", "Boston Red Sox", "MLB", "Paul Waner", "Sports", "Kevin Mitchell", "Steve Busby", "Roger Maris", "Clayton Kershaw", "Willie Davis", "Max Scherzer", "Chicago White Sox", "Debs Garms", "Carl Erskine", "Philadelphia Phillies", "Gary Carter", "Eddie Taubensee", "Pittsburgh Pirates", "Hal Morris", "Jack Scott", "Kansas City Royals", "San Francisco Giants", "Chicago Cubs", "New York Mets", "Detroit Tigers", "Joe DiMaggio", "Jim Archer", "MLB baseball", "Johnny Vander Meer", "John Smoltz"], "text": "# This Date in Baseball - Alex Rodriguez homers for his 3,000th career hit\n\nBy The Associated Press  \nJune 18th, 2025, 02:10 PM\n\n---\n\nJune 19\n\n1927 \u2014 Jack Scott of the Philadelphia Phillies pitched two complete games in a doubleheader. Scott beat the Cincinnati Reds 3-1 and lost 3-0 in the second game. Scott was the last pitcher in major league history to complete two games on the same day.\n\n1938 - Cincinnati pitcher Johnny Vander Meer coming off two straight no-hitters, extended his string of hitless innings to 21 2/3 against the Boston Bees. Vander Meer gave up a single to Debs Garms in the fourth inning. The Red won 14-1 behind Vander Meer's four-hitter.\n\n1941 \u2014 En route to 56, Joe DiMaggio hit in his 32nd consecutive game, going 3-for-3, including a home run, against the Chicago White Sox.\n\n1942 \u2014 Paul Waner got hit number 3,000 \u2014 a single off Rip Sewell \u2014 but the Boston Braves lost to the Pittsburgh Pirates 7-6.\n\n1952 \u2014 Brooklyn Dodger Carl Erskine pitched a 5-0 no-hitter against the Chicago Cubs at Ebbets Field.\n\n1961 \u2014 Roger Maris' ninth-inning homer off Kansas City's Jim Archer was his 25th of the year, putting him seven games ahead of Babe Ruth's pace in 1927.\n\n1973 \u2014 Pete Rose of the Cincinnati Reds and Willie Davis of the Los Angeles Dodgers both collect their 2,000th hits. It is a single for Rose against the San Francisco Giants and a home run for Davis against the Atlanta Braves.\n\n1974 \u2014 Steve Busby of the Kansas City Royals hurled his second no-hitter in 14 months and gave up just one walk in beating the Brewers 2-0 at Milwaukee.\n\n1977 \u2014 The Boston Red Sox hit five home runs in an 11-1 triumph over the New York Yankees. The five homers gave the Red Sox a major league record 16 in three games. Boston hit six homers on the 17th and five on the 18th, also against the Yankees. In the series the Yankees had no homers.\n\n1990 \u2014 Gary Carter plays in his 1,862nd career game as a catcher to break the National League mark set by Al Lopez.\n\n1994 \u2014 John Smoltz became the 14th major league pitcher to give up four homers in an inning when he was tagged by Cincinnati. The Reds set a team record for home runs in an inning, connecting four times in the first inning. Hal Morris, Kevin Mitchell, Jeff Branson and Eddie Taubensee homered. Smoltz allowed 20 total bases in the first inning, the most given up in the NL since 1900.\n\n2015 \u2014 Alex Rodriguez homered for his 3,000th career hit as the New York Yankees beat the Detroit Tigers 7-2.\n\n2017 \u2014 Dodgers rookie Cody Bellinger launched two more home runs, setting a major league record with his powerful start, and Clayton Kershaw became the first 10-game winner in the National League despite giving up a career-high four long balls as Los Angeles held on for a 10-6 victory over the New York Mets. Bellinger reached 21 homers in 51 career games \u2014 faster than any other player in big league history.\n\n2019 \u2014 One day after fouling a bunted ball in his face during batting practice and breaking his nose, Max Scherzer takes the mound for the Nationals against the Phillies sporting a prominent black eye. He still stymies the opposition with 7 scoreless innings in a 2 - 0 win. \"Trust me, this thing looks a lot worse than it actually feels,\" he explains to journalists."}
{"requested_url": "https://apnews.com/article/michigan-bear-neck-lid-31cfc1e0e19186f2ac666bbac8034cc4", "title": "A Michigan bear roamed the woods for two years with an awful lid on his neck. Not anymore.", "publishing_date": "2025-06-18 18:38:49+00:00", "topics": ["Animals", "Bears", "Michigan", "Cody Norton", "Angela Kujawa", "Science", "Oddities"], "text": "# A Michigan bear roamed the woods for two years with an awful lid on his neck. Not anymore.\n\nBy Ed White  \nJune 18th, 2025, 06:38 PM\n\n---\n\nMichigan wildlife experts finally were able to trap a black bear and remove a large lid that was stuck around his neck \u2014 for two years.\n\n\"It's pretty incredible that the bear survived and was able to feed itself,\" state bear specialist Cody Norton said Wednesday. \"The neck was scarred and missing hair, but the bear was in much better condition than we expected it to be.\"\n\nThe bear first turned up on a trail camera as a cub in 2023 in the northern Lower Peninsula. After that, the Department of Natural Resources was on the lookout for the elusive animal with a hard plastic lid around the neck, Norton said.\n\nThe bear appeared again on a camera in late May, still wearing the barrel lid, and the DNR responded by setting a cylindrical trap and safely luring him inside. The bear was immobilized with an injection and the lid was cut off in minutes on June 3. The bear eventually woke up and rambled away.\n\nAngela Kujawa, a wildlife biologist who was at the scene, said she wondered about the bear's ability to climb trees with the uncomfortable accessory.\n\n\"And he probably laid more on his back or side when he was resting,\" she said.\n\nNorton said it's not precisely known how the lid got stuck on the bear's neck. Bear baiting is legal in Michigan, but the hole on a barrel lid typically must be large enough to avoid what happened to this bear.\n\nThe bear weighed 110 pounds (49.9 kilograms), which is fairly typical for a 2-year-old.\n\n\"We were pleasantly surprised. It was still able to make a living like a pretty typical bear,\" Norton said."}
{"requested_url": "https://apnews.com/article/michigan-432ad8598dccb4b4b8e84f9b160e2e77", "title": "Michigan Sportswatch Daily Listings", "publishing_date": "2025-06-18 04:00:36+00:00", "topics": ["Michigan", "Sports"], "text": "# Michigan Sportswatch Daily Listings\n\nBy The Associated Press  \nJune 18th, 2025, 04:00 AM\n\n---\n\nPittsburgh at Detroit \u2014 FDSN Detroit, SportsNet Pittsburgh, Fubo Sports US, MLB.TV\n\nThe Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive TV listings provided by LiveSportsOnTV."}
{"requested_url": "https://apnews.com/article/brad-lander-nyc-immigration-court-arrest-6ed341297efab31a08a14421674d8ed8", "title": "Brad Lander, NYC mayoral candidate, arrested at immigration court", "publishing_date": "2025-06-17 16:36:31+00:00", "topics": ["New York City", "Donald Trump", "Brad Lander", "Kathy Hochul", "Law enforcement", "Jay Clayton", "Ras Baraka", "Andrew Cuomo", "Immigration", "Courts", "Journalism", "New York City Wire", "New York", "Politics", "Tricia McLaughlin", "Kristi Noem", "Nicholas Biase", "Race and ethnicity", "U.S. Department of Homeland Security", "U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement", "Race and Ethnicity"], "text": "# Brad Lander, NYC mayoral candidate, arrested at immigration court\n\nBy Cedar Attanasio  \nJune 17th, 2025, 04:36 PM\n\n---\n\nNEW YORK (AP) \u2014 New York City Comptroller and Democratic mayoral candidate Brad Lander was arrested by federal agents at an immigration court Tuesday after he linked arms with a person authorities were attempting to detain.\n\nA reporter with The Associated Press and other journalists witnessed Lander's arrest at a federal building in Manhattan, the latest confrontation between U.S. agents and a Democratic politician objecting to the Trump administration's mass detention and deportation programs.\n\nLander was released from custody after a few hours. The U.S. attorney's office said it was investigating his actions and would decide later whether to charge him with a crime. The immigrant Lander escorted out of the courtroom was also arrested.\n\nLander had spent the morning observing immigration court hearings and told an AP reporter he was there to \"accompany\" some immigrants out of the building.\n\nHis confrontation with agents unfolded quickly. As a group of agents moved in to detain a man who had exited a courtroom, Lander locked arms with the immigrant and demanded to see a judicial warrant. For more than 40 seconds, agents tried to physically separate the two, pulling both men down the hall in a chaotic scrum as photographers snapped photos.\n\nEventually, the agents wrested the two apart, then grabbed Lander's arms and put them behind his back.\n\n\"You're obstructing,\" an agent told Lander.\n\n\"I'm not obstructing. I'm standing right here in the hallway,\" Lander said as he was being handcuffed.\n\nIn a statement, U.S. Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said Lander \"was arrested for assaulting law enforcement and impeding a federal officer.\"\n\nAfter his release, Lander exited the building holding hands with his wife and accompanied by New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, to the cheers of a gathered crowd. He told reporters all he was trying to do was hold the arm of the man being detained and \"certainly did not\" assault an officer.\n\n\"I am happy to report that I am just fine. I lost a button,\" Lander said, adding that he planned to return to the immigration court again as a form of nonviolent way of standing up to Trump's immigration policies.\n\n\"I believe it is important to show up and bear witness and accompany people,\" he said.\n\nHe added that the man \"ripped\" from his arms \"doesn't have a lawyer\" and will likely sleep in an immigration detention center.\n\nThe episode occurred as federal immigration officials are conducting large-scale arrests outside immigration courtrooms across the country. In many cases, immigrants are arrested after a judge grants a government request to dismiss their case, making them eligible for expedited removal.\n\n\"They remove any opportunity for due process,\" Lander had told reporters earlier in the day.\n\nLander's arrest comes a little more than a month after Newark, New Jersey, Mayor Ras Baraka was arrested on a trespassing charge outside a federal immigration detention center in his city, though the charge was later dropped. Baraka's fellow Democrat, Rep. LaMonica McIver, was charged with assaulting and impeding federal agents stemming from her role at the same visit as the mayor. She's denied the charges.\n\nLast week, Democratic U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla was forcibly removed from a news conference in Los Angeles for Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem as he tried to speak about immigration raids. On Tuesday, he encouraged more Americans to speak out.\n\nLander is a candidate in the city's Democratic mayoral primary. Early voting in the contest is underway and the election is next week. Other candidates in the race quickly weighed in to criticize the arrest.\n\n\"This is the latest example of the extreme thuggery of Trump's ICE out of control \u2014 one can only imagine the fear families across our country feel when confronted with ICE,\" said former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who is running in the primary.\n\nZohran Mamdani, the most left-leaning candidate, rushed to the federal building to offer support to Lander, as did Hochul, who condemned the arrest in a post on X by likening it to excrement.\n\nA spokesperson for U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton said in a brief statement that the office would prosecute any violation of federal law.\n\n\"The safety and security of official proceedings, government officials, law enforcement officers, and all members of the public who participate in them is a core focus of our Office,\" said the spokesperson, Nicholas Biase."}
{"requested_url": "https://apnews.com/article/giants-guardians-score-39f4c2e22d4a6412679923e0f528f2a9", "title": "Gabriel Arias and Guardians spoil Rafael Devers' Giants debut with 3-2 win", "publishing_date": "2025-06-18 04:35:16+00:00", "topics": ["Casey Schmitt", "Emmanuel Clase", "Carlos Santana", "Steven Kwan", "Robbie Ray", "Jung Hoo Lee", "San Francisco Giants", "Cleveland Guardians", "Baseball", "MLB", "Ohio", "California", "Wilmer Flores", "Sports", "Boston Red Sox", "Austin Hedges", "Justin Verlander", "Gabriel Arias", "Heliot Ramos", "Mike Yastrzemski", "Rafael Devers", "Dominic Smith", "Slade Cecconi", "Hunter Gaddis", "MLB baseball"], "text": "# Gabriel Arias and Guardians spoil Rafael Devers' Giants debut with 3-2 win\n\nBy Janie Mccauley  \nJune 18th, 2025, 04:35 AM\n\n---\n\nSAN FRANCISCO (AP) \u2014 Gabriel Arias hit a go-ahead homer in the sixth inning and doubled in the ninth on a night when San Francisco celebrated new slugger Rafael Devers at every chance, and the Cleveland Guardians spoiled the fun by beating the Giants 3-2 on Tuesday.\n\nJung Hoo Lee singled to start the bottom of the ninth against Emmanuel Clase, and Devers singled one out later before Heliot Ramos walked to load the bases for Dominic Smith. He flied out and Casey Schmitt struck out to end it as Clase earned his 15th save.\n\nDevers went 2 for 5 with two strikeouts in his Giants debut after being acquired in a trade from the Boston Red Sox on Sunday. He hit a go-ahead double in the third inning only for the Guardians to answer on Carlos Santana's RBI single in the fourth. Devers struck out in the first and fifth.\n\nSchmitt and Mike Yastrzemski hit consecutive singles to start the eighth against Hunter Gaddis, then Wilmer Flores entered as a pinch hitter. Flores lined out to left fielder Steven Kwan, who fired to second to get Schmitt for the double play.\n\nArias connected for his fifth homer off lefty Robbie Ray (8-2), who struck out five and walked two, allowing three runs on five hits over six innings. Austin Hedges had a sacrifice fly in the third for Cleveland.\n\nSlade Cecconi (2-3) struck out six over five innings for the Guardians, who were coming off a sweep by the Mariners in Seattle and had lost five of six overall.\n\n## Key moment\n\nAside from Ramos' rocket throw home from left field to save a run with a double play to end the top of the ninth, for the Giants the best part of the day began long before first pitch when many of Devers' new teammates took time ahead of their pregame routines to attend his introductory news conference.\n\n## Key stat\n\nThe Giants came in with a .667 winning percentage (16-8) all-time vs. Cleveland, their best against any opponent.\n\n## Up next\n\nCleveland LHP Logan Allen (4-4, 4.28 ERA) faces Giants RHP Justin Verlander (0-3, 4.33), who returns from the injured list to make his 11th start this season."}
{"requested_url": "https://apnews.com/article/florida-university-presidents-desantis-allies-0718054a9d25ee61c2826a5f2a5721a9", "title": "Three more DeSantis allies to take the helm of public universities in Florida", "publishing_date": "2025-06-18 21:16:54+00:00", "topics": ["Ron DeSantis", "Florida", "Florida state government", "Colleges and universities", "Kate Payne", "Politics", "Andrei Minakov", "Education", "Jeanette Nuez", "Lobbying", "Angelo Pettis"], "text": "# Three more DeSantis allies to take the helm of public universities in Florida\n\nBy Kate Payne  \nJune 18th, 2025, 09:16 PM\n\n---\n\nTALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) \u2014 The state board that oversees Florida's public universities has confirmed three more allies of Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis to become university presidents.\n\nIt's a move supporters say will grant the schools the political capital to secure critical state funding and navigate a rapidly shifting legal landscape, and one that critics see as another sign that alignment with the governor's conservative education agenda has become a prerequisite for academic leadership in the state.\n\nThe elevation of two Republican former lawmakers and a lobbyist comes after the state Board of Governors rejected the nomination of a longtime academic to lead the University of Florida, amid conservative backlash against his past support for diversity, equity and inclusion programs that board members viewed as unacceptable liberal ideology.\n\nWith the appointments approved Wednesday, five of the state's 12 public universities will be led by former Republican lawmakers or lobbyists, a move that will help bolster DeSantis' legacy in higher education that could long outlast his time in office.\n\nLeading a Florida university generally comes with a multiyear contract for a salary of at least six-figures and a plush on-campus residence. The process for picking these leaders happens largely behind closed doors, creating what the state's Republican House speaker has called \"a spoil system for a select few.\"\n\nDeSantis' former lieutenant governor, Jeanette Nu\u00f1ez. was confirmed as the president of Florida International University in Miami. Meanwhile, telecommunications lobbyist Marva Johnson was tapped to lead Florida A&M University, the state's only public historically Black university. Johnson was previously a DeSantis appointee on the state board of education.\n\nManny Diaz, a former state lawmaker and state education commissioner under DeSantis, was picked to lead the University of West Florida in Pensacola on an interim basis, mirroring the appointment of Nu\u00f1ez, who was first named interim president before getting the permanent job at FIU.\n\nJohnson's appointment, in particular, has alarmed FAMU students and alumni, who begged the board not to confirm her on Wednesday, arguing that she failed to meet the job's minimum requirements and that her requested salary far exceeds her predecessor's. Johnson's appointment has stoked longstanding fears that the HBCU could be merged with Florida State University, the predominantly white institution across the railroad tracks.\n\n\"I can't decide if her appointment is politically motivated, gross negligence on the part of the board, or just you guys wanting to get rid of FAMU altogether,\" alumnus Angelo Pettis told the Board of governors.\n\nBoard members defended Johnson, her credentials as a telecoms executive and her service on various state boards. Johnson addressed the concerns of FAMU students and supporters, saying she's \"ready to lead with boldness\" and committed to working alongside them.\n\n\"I remain deeply committed to ensuring that the legacy of the university is not lost,\" Johnson said."}
{"requested_url": "https://apnews.com/article/joe-biden-juneteenth-texas-2d08f2033b6b813e25809cf382fd7c88", "title": "Joe Biden to attend Juneteenth celebration at Texas historic Black church", "publishing_date": "2025-06-18 14:43:01+00:00", "topics": ["Joe Biden", "Texas", "Juneteenth", "District of Columbia", "Black experience", "Politics", "Anglicanism", "Race and ethnicity", "Legislation", "Galveston", "Race and Ethnicity"], "text": "# Joe Biden to attend Juneteenth celebration at Texas historic Black church\n\nBy Seung Min Kim  \nJune 18th, 2025, 02:43 PM\n\n---\n\nWASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 Former President Joe Biden will be attending a Juneteenth celebration at a historic African Methodist Episcopal church in Galveston, Texas.\n\nThe former Democratic president's plans were confirmed by a person with knowledge of them but not authorized to discuss logistics publicly.\n\nIn 2021, Biden signed legislation that established Juneteenth as a federal holiday. The day marks the end of slavery by commemorating June 19, 1865, when Union soldiers brought the news of freedom to enslaved Black people in Galveston.\n\nThe event Thursday will be held at the Reedy Chapel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Galveston.\n\nThat church, the first and oldest operating AME church in the state, is one of the locations where an order announcing the end of slavery in Texas was announced on that day in 1865, according to the Galveston County Daily News."}
{"requested_url": "https://apnews.com/article/usl-womens-super-league-tampa-sun-stadium-1fc30ebf55ab29fc7d4265411fc3cb60", "title": "Tampa Bay Sun announce plans for women's soccer stadium", "publishing_date": "2025-06-17 19:59:42+00:00", "topics": ["NWSL soccer", "Soccer", "Florida", "Sports", "David Shaw", "Indiana Pacers"], "text": "# Tampa Bay Sun announce plans for women's soccer stadium\n\nBy Anne M. Peterson  \nJune 17th, 2025, 07:59 PM\n\n---\n\nThe USL Women's Super League champion Tampa Bay Sun announced an ambitious plan for their own 15,000-seat stadium, joining a growing trend of facilities being built specifically for women's sports.\n\nThe project announced Tuesday would be the first stadium for a team in the Women's Super League, which sits on the top tier of women's soccer in the United States alongside the National Women's Soccer League.\n\nThe expected cost and timeline for the project, which includes the new headquarters for the USL, have not been disclosed.\n\nThe stadium would be part of a 33-acre project in Tampa's historic Ybor City district by developer David Shaw, who is also Tampa Bay's majority owner. The area was once considered for a new Tampa Bay Rays stadium.\n\n\"We believe in the power of sport to inspire, unite, and drive meaningful change,\" Shaw said in a statement. \"By anchoring this historic neighborhood with a vibrant home for women's professional soccer, we're investing in our city's future and honoring the community that makes it thrive.\"\n\nThe Tampa Bay Sun won the Super League's inaugural championship on Saturday with a 1-0 victory over Fort Lauderdale United. The eight-team league, which kicked off last fall, will be joined by a ninth team next season.\n\nThe NWSL's Kansas City Current built the first women's soccer stadium, CPKC Stadium, which opened last year.\n\nThe expansion NWSL team in Denver, which will begin play next season, has announced its plans to build a stadium. Brighton of the Women's Super League in England won local approval for a stadium in 2023 but there's no current timeline for construction.\n\nOther women's teams are investing in building their own facilities, too. The WNBA's Indiana Fever in January announced a $78 million training facility that will open in 2027, giving the team its own space apart from the NBA's Pacers."}
{"requested_url": "https://apnews.com/article/juneteenth-native-americans-tribal-slavery-freedmen-5f60913181fb7edc9a6071d56031da11", "title": "Juneteenth highlights tribal slavery descendants' citizenship struggle", "publishing_date": "2025-06-17 17:17:19+00:00", "topics": ["Oklahoma", "Indigenous people", "Joe Biden", "Juneteenth", "Slavery", "Voting", "Jeff Kennedy", "Bill Anoatubby", "Randy Sachs", "Damario Solomon Simmons", "Lewis Johnson", "Abraham Lincoln", "Gary Batton", "Rhonda Grayson", "Race and ethnicity", "Debra Haaland", "Angela Walton-Raji", "International agreements", "Jason Salsman", "Race and Ethnicity"], "text": "# Juneteenth highlights tribal slavery descendants' citizenship struggle\n\nBy Graham Lee Brewer  \nJune 17th, 2025, 05:17 PM\n\n---\n\nJuneteenth may mark the day in 1865 when enslaved people in Galveston, Texas found out they had been freed, but thousands of people in Oklahoma are still fighting for full citizenship in the tribal nations that once held their ancestors in bondage.\n\nSeveral tribes practiced slavery, and five in Oklahoma \u2014 The Cherokee, Seminole, Choctaw, Chickasaw, and Muscogee nations \u2014 signed reconstruction treaties with the U.S. in 1866 abolishing it three years after President Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation. They granted the formerly enslaved, known commonly as Freedmen, citizenship within their respective tribes.\n\nOnly one of those tribes, the Cherokee Nation, continues to fully grant the rights of citizenship.\n\nFor descendants of people who were enslaved by tribal nations, Juneteenth is both a celebration of freedom for people of African descent and a reminder of their struggle to be fully embraced by the Indigenous communities with whom they share history and in many cases ancestry.\n\n## Muscogee Nation\n\nTraditionally, Freedmen in the Muscogee Nation celebrate emancipation day on August 4, marking when the tribe's council drew up a law to declare them free, said Rhonda Grayson, the founder and director of the Oklahoma Indian Territory Museum of Black Creek Freedmen History.\n\nShe traces her lineage to formerly enslaved people listed on a 1906 U.S. census of Native Americans who had been forcibly removed to Oklahoma. Known as the Dawes Rolls, the census created two lists - those who appeared Native and those who appeared Black. Those with African ancestry were put on the Freedmen rolls, although many also had Native ancestry.\n\nLast week, the Muscogee Nation Supreme Court heard arguments in a case brought by Grayson and Jeff Kennedy, who are fighting for their citizenship rights and recognition within the Muscogee Nation.\n\n\"Our ancestors were Muscogee people of African descent,\" said Damario Solomon-Simmons, an attorney representing Grayson and Kennedy whose ancestor was also a Freedmen in the tribe. \"We were transformed into 'Freedmen' by the Dawes Commission.\"\n\nTheir ancestors were also forced on the Trail of Tears, and after the Civil War they were granted citizenship and served in the tribe's legislative bodies, Kennedy said.\n\n\"We believe that the (Muscogee) Nation would not be what it is today without the bloodshed and tears of those African people,\" he said.\n\nBut, in 1979, the tribe adopted a new constitution restricting membership to those with Choctaw ancestors \"by blood\" according to the Dawes Rolls.\n\nGrayson and Kennedy's lawsuit countered that citizenship requirement is a violation of the 1866 treaty, and in 2023 a Muscogee Nation district court agreed. The Muscogee Nation's citizenship board appealed and is asking the Supreme Court to overturn that decision.\n\n\"That provision has guided our Nation for decades and reflects the will of the people through a democratic process,\" Jason Salsman, a spokesperson for the Muscogee Nation said in a statement. \"We believe that any change to our citizenship laws must come from our own citizens\u2014not from outside interpretations.\"\n\nThe court's ruling is expected later this year, and it could open the door for thousands of new members to the tribe.\n\nFor Grayson, the legal battle is about more than their birthright to citizenship she said, it's also about setting straight the historical record.\n\n\"We weren't just slaves,\" Grayson said. \"Our people need to know that. Our young people need to know that.\"\n\n## Seminole Nation\n\nIn 2021, following pressure from Congress and the administration of President Joe Biden, the Indian Health Services began allowing Freedmen citizens in the Seminole Nation to access healthcare at IHS facilities after several reported that they had been denied COVID-19 vaccinations.\n\nWhile the descendants of formerly enslaved Seminole Nation tribal members had previously been granted citizenship, in 2000 the tribe voted to restrict citizenship to those who had one-eighth Seminole ancestry according to the Dawes Rolls, thereby disenrolling more than 1,000 citizens of African ancestry.\n\nIn 2002, a U.S. district court ordered the tribe to reinstate their membership, however, today the descendants of those on the Seminole Nation's Freedmen rolls are only allowed to vote and sit on tribal council and are thereby not full citizens.\n\n\"They're using something that the United States used to separate us, and now they're using it to keep us in a very bad position by putting a lot of our people at a disadvantage,\" said LeEtta Osborne-Sampson, a Freedmen member of the Seminole Nation and one of four who sit on its tribal council. She said members like her are not given access to others services provided by the tribal nation, such as education and housing assistance. There are about 2,500 Freedmen citizens of the tribe today, she said.\n\nSeminole Nation Chief Lewis Johnson did not respond to requests for comment.\n\n## Choctaw Nation\n\nStarting in 1885, the Choctaw Nation had given citizenship to Freedmen descendants, but in 1983 the tribal nation adopted a constitution that restricted membership to those with Choctaw ancestors \"by blood\" according to the Dawes Rolls.\n\nIn 2021, the House Financial Services Committee threatened to withhold tens of millions of dollars in housing funds from the Choctaw, Chickasaw, Muscogee, and Seminole nations if they did not honor their 1866 treaty obligations and fully recognize the descendants of Freedmen as citizens. In response, Chief Gary Batton issued an open letter promising to confront the issue.\n\n\"The story of Choctaw Freedmen deserves our attention and thoughtful consideration within the framework of tribal self-governance,\" Batton wrote. \"Today our tribal membership is based on the Dawes Rolls \u2014 a poisonous legacy from 125 years ago that took root and caused a myriad of membership issues for tribal nations, including Freedmen.\"\n\nBatton, who remains in office, called for an open dialogue between Choctaw Freedmen, tribal citizens, elected officials, and the federal government. But since then, Freedmen descendants say that dialogue hasn't taken place.\n\n\"It became obvious, unfortunately, that it was an empty gesture,\" said author and genealogist Angela Walton-Raji. Like many Freedmen descendants, Walton-Raji said her ancestors were both Black and Choctaw but were forced to enroll on the Dawes Rolls as a Freedmen only. \"It's very clear that there was an anti-Black sentiment then, as there is now,\" she said.\n\nRandy Sachs, a spokesperson for the Choctaw Nation, said in a statement to The Associated Press that the tribe set up an internal committee and asked tribal members for comment on the issue, but over that two year period they only received about 20 calls - more than half of which were from a single family. \"Determining our membership is an essential part of defending our sovereignty, and we will continue to listen to a variety of voices,\" he said.\n\nThere has never been a legal challenge to the tribe's 1983 constitution, and Walton-Raji said many Freedmen descendants either don't know that part of their history, because it is not taught in schools or fully acknowledged by the tribe, or do not have the funds to mount a court case that could last decades.\n\n## Chickasaw Nation\n\nThe Chickasaw Nation jointly signed its 1866 reconstruction treaty with the Choctaw Nation. However, unlike the Choctaw, the Chickasaw Nation never recognized the people it held in slavery as citizens of the tribe.\n\n\"They broke the treaty, they never gave citizenship to their Freedmen. So up until statehood, Chickasaw Freedmen had no country, they were never citizens of any nation,,\" said Walton-Raji, who is also a co-founder of the Choctaw & Chickasaw Freedmen Association. Oklahoma became a state in 1907.\n\nThe Chickasaw Nation did not respond to requests for comment.\n\nSince they were never granted citizenship, their descendants are at the greatest disadvantage when it comes to any legal claim to citizenship in the Chickasaw Nation, Walton-Raji said.\n\nIn 2021, following the Cherokee Nation's amendment to its constitution that granted full citizenship to Freedmen descendants, Dept. of the Interior Secretary Deb Haaland encouraged other tribes \"to take similar steps to meet their moral and legal obligations to the Freedmen.\"\n\nChickasaw Nation Gov. Bill Anoatubby responded by saying that the tribe's citizenship is a matter of tribal sovereignty."}
{"requested_url": "https://apnews.com/article/nikol-pashinyan-samvel-karapetyan-armenian-church-b7ca840df75bda50c48bb91fa6e68218", "title": "Armenian billionaire appears in court accused of calling for regime change as church feud spirals", "publishing_date": "2025-06-18 15:10:55+00:00", "topics": ["Yerevan", "Nikol Pashinian", "Armenia", "Courts", "Armen Feroyan", "Politics", "Law enforcement", "Armen Abazyan", "Indictments"], "text": "# Armenian billionaire appears in court accused of calling for regime change as church feud spirals\n\nBy Avet Demourian  \nJune 18th, 2025, 03:10 PM\n\n---\n\nYEREVAN, Armenia (AP) \u2014 One of richest men in Armenia has been arrested on charges of making public calls to seize power in the country illegally, his lawyer said Wednesday, as a feud between Armenia's prime minister and the nation's dominant church intensified.\n\nArmenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has long had a tumultuous relationship with the Armenian Apostolic Church and billionaire Samvel Karapetyan now seems to have been caught up in it.\n\nKarapetyan, 59, was detained late on Tuesday night and appeared in front of a court in the Armenian capital of Yerevan on Wednesday, according to Armen Feroyan, his attorney.\n\nThe lawyer said Karapetyan denied the charges against him. Karapetyan, who also holds Russian citizenship, owns the Tashir Group, a conglomerate that operates residential and commercial real estate as well as the Electric Networks of Armenia.\n\nPashinyan, the prime minister, told journalists on Wednesday that the power company would be nationalized \"soon\" following Karapetyan's arrest.\n\nBefore his arrest, Karapetyan said in video released Tuesday, that \"a small group of people who have forgotten the thousand-year history of Armenia and the church\" were attacking the religious institution.\n\n\"I have always stood with the Armenian Church and the Armenian people,\" the billionaire said. \"If the politicians do not succeed, we will intervene in our own way in this campaign against the church.\"\n\nThe remarks were seen as a jab at Pashinyan, who on June 8 called for the head of Armenia's church, Catholicos Karekin II, to resign after accusing him of fathering a child while under a vow of celibacy. At the time, the church released a statement accusing Pashinyan of undermining Armenia's \"spiritual unity\" but did not address the claim about the child.\n\nPashinyan responded, promising on Facebook to crack down on \"depraved\" members of the clergy and their benefactors.\n\n\"He says 'we will intervene in our own way',\" Pashinyan wrote, apparently citing Karapetyan. \"Now I will intervene in my own way.\"\n\nEarlier on Wednesday, the prime minister dismissed the head of the country's national security service, Armen Abazyan. When asked by journalists if the move was linked to the billionaire's arrest, Pashinyan only said the security chief \"deserved to rest a little\" after a difficult tenure."}
{"requested_url": "https://apnews.com/article/no-kings-riverside-california-hit-run-arrest-8a620fbf721d9750f6b8c50a88f7c386", "title": "2 arrests in hit-and-run at Southern California \u2018No Kings\u2019 protest", "publishing_date": "2025-06-18 16:30:53+00:00", "topics": ["Donald Trump", "Riverside", "Protests and demonstrations", "California", "Arizona", "Salt Lake City", "Arizona state government", "Shootings", "Indictments"], "text": "# 2 arrests in hit-and-run at Southern California 'No Kings' protest\n\nJune 18th, 2025, 04:30 PM\n\n---\n\nRIVERSIDE, Calif. (AP) \u2014 Two people were arrested in connection with a hit-and-run crash at a weekend \"No Kings\" protest in Southern California that left a 21-year-old demonstrator seriously injured, authorities said.\n\nThe SUV veered toward marchers Saturday night in Riverside, east of Los Angeles, and struck the woman, according to investigators. She remained hospitalized in critical condition, the Riverside Police Department said in a statement Tuesday.\n\nAfter a search aided by tips from the public, police arrested the suspected driver, a 58-year-old Riverside man, on Monday, the police statement said. He could face charges including assault with a deadly weapon and hit-and-run causing injury.\n\nAlso arrested was a 39-year-old Riverside woman suspected of taking the SUV into an unincorporated area of the Mojave Desert and \"intentionally destroying and concealing evidence,\" the statement said. She could face charges including accessory after the fact and destruction of evidence.\n\n\"No Kings\" protests swept across the country on Saturday, and organizers said millions rallied against what they described as President Donald Trump's authoritarian tendencies.\n\nConfrontations were largely isolated. In Utah, a demonstrator was inadvertently fatally shot by a \"safety volunteer\" who was trying to stop an alleged gunman at the rally in Salt Lake City, according to police and organizers.\n\nOutside the Arizona statehouse, a social media video showed protesters Saturday jeering at and then skirmishing with a masked man, who eventually pulled out a handgun, causing the crowd to scatter. Another video showed Arizona Department of Public Safety officers taking the man into custody."}
{"requested_url": "https://apnews.com/article/mlb-allstar-game-coaching-staff-d852f733f585bf3230d0473fc99e3aab", "title": "Hall of Fame manager Joe Torre added to the AL staff as an honorary coach for the All-Star Game", "publishing_date": "2025-06-17 23:27:45+00:00", "topics": ["Aaron Boone", "Dave Roberts", "Stephen Vogt", "New York Yankees", "Los Angeles Dodgers", "Atlanta Braves", "Clayton McCullough", "MLB All-Star Game", "St. Louis Cardinals", "New York Mets", "Baseball", "Miami Marlins", "New Jersey", "New York City", "MLB", "New York City Wire", "New York", "Georgia", "Sports", "Joe Torre", "MLB baseball", "Brian Snitker"], "text": "# Hall of Fame manager Joe Torre added to the AL staff as an honorary coach for the All-Star Game\n\nBy The Associated Press  \nJune 17th, 2025, 11:27 PM\n\n---\n\nHall of Fame manager Joe Torre will serve as an honorary coach for the American League at the All-Star Game in Atlanta next month.\n\nNew York Yankees skipper Aaron Boone invited Torre on Tuesday to join his staff at the Midsummer Classic. The 84-year-old Torre, currently a special assistant to the commissioner, won 2,326 games as a major league manager over 29 seasons. He led the Yankees to four World Series titles and six AL pennants in 12 years with the team.\n\nTorre also managed the New York Mets, Atlanta Braves, St. Louis Cardinals and Los Angeles Dodgers.\n\nIn addition, Boone invited Cleveland manager Stephen Vogt to join the AL staff for the game. He will join Yankees coaches in the dugout.\n\nOn the NL side, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts asked Braves manager Brian Snitker and Miami Marlins first-year manager Clayton McCullough to serve as coaches. They will join the Dodgers' coaching staff.\n\nThe All-Star Game takes place July 15 at Truist Park, three days before Torre's 85th birthday."}
{"requested_url": "https://apnews.com/article/shohei-ohtani-lakers-dfb6a05938b8db4f0904a80d4aac2ded", "title": "Dodgers manager Dave Roberts tells Lakers akers fans to back off Shohei Ohtani", "publishing_date": "2025-06-19 00:35:52+00:00", "topics": ["Dave Roberts", "Los Angeles Lakers", "Rui Hachimura", "Shohei Ohtani", "Los Angeles Dodgers", "Baseball", "MLB", "California", "Ben Verlander", "NBA basketball", "Sports", "MLB baseball", "Mark Walters", "Mark Walter"], "text": "# Dodgers manager Dave Roberts tells Lakers akers fans to back off Shohei Ohtani\n\nBy Beth Harris  \nJune 19th, 2025, 12:35 AM\n\n---\n\nLOS ANGELES (AP) \u2014 Los Angeles Dodgers manager Dave Roberts has a playful message for Lakers fans about Shohei Ohtani, now that the baseball and NBA teams will have the same majority owner.\n\n\"Hands off of Shohei,\" he said, smiling. \"They got enough superstars wearing the purple and gold. Leave him alone.\"\n\nSocial media on Wednesday was rife with photos of the Japanese two-way superstar's face and body in a Lakers jersey after news broke that Dodgers controlling owner Mark Walter is buying a majority interest in the Lakers from the Buss family for $10 billion.\n\nFox baseball analyst Ben Verlander posted on X: \"We're really about to have Shohei Ohtani out here dropping 50 on Christmas Day for the Lakers. What a time to be alive.\"\n\nAnother person suggested Ohtani could be a two-way player for the Lakers, while someone wondered if the Lakers would start Ohtani at the 2 or 3 position. Others thanked Ohtani for deferring most of his $700 million, 10-year contract and, as one person posted, \"putting all that money in Mark Walters' pockets so he can buy and save the Lakers franchise.\"\n\nThe Lakers already have a Japanese player in forward Rui Hachimura.\n\n\"I think Hachimura is taking care of the Japanese side of things,\" Roberts said. \"We'll have Shohei on the baseball side.\"\n\nLast December, Ohtani and his wife attended a Lakers game and were presented personalized jerseys. His wife, Mamiko Tanaka played four seasons for the Fujitsu Red Wave of the Women's Japan Basketball League.\n\nRoberts appeared to warm to the suggestion that he might be sitting in the celebrity-packed courtside seats at Lakers games this winter.\n\n\"I'm sure a lot of people have hit Mark up,\" he said, \"but I might add myself to the list.\""}
{"requested_url": "https://apnews.com/article/israel-iran-scientists-weizmann-strike-047e6115726fcc417af46036f25d5c37", "title": "Iranian missile strikes Israel's premier Weizmann research institute", "publishing_date": "2025-06-19 11:15:45+00:00", "topics": ["Iran", "Israel", "2024-2025 Mideast Wars", "Israel government", "MIDEAST WARS", "War and unrest", "Oren Schuldiner", "Science", "Yoel Guzansky", "Iran government"], "text": "# Iranian missile strikes Israel's premier Weizmann research institute\n\nBy Tia Goldenberg and Moshe Edri  \nJune 19th, 2025, 11:15 AM\n\n---\n\nREHOVOT, Israel (AP) \u2014 For years, Israel has targeted Iranian nuclear scientists, hoping to choke progress on Iran's nuclear program by striking at the brains behind it.\n\nNow, with Iran and Israel in an open-ended direct conflict, scientists in Israel have found themselves in the crosshairs after an Iranian missile struck a premier research institute known for its work in life sciences and physics, among other fields.\n\nWhile no one was killed in the strike on the Weizmann Institute of Science early Sunday, it caused heavy damage to multiple labs on campus, snuffing out years of scientific research and sending a chilling message to Israeli scientists that they and their expertise are now targets in the escalating conflict with Iran.\n\n\"It's a moral victory\" for Iran, said Oren Schuldiner, a professor in the department of molecular cell biology and the department of molecular neuroscience whose lab was obliterated in the strike. \"They managed to harm the crown jewel of science in Israel.\"\n\n## Iranian scientists were a prime target in a long shadow war\n\nDuring years of a shadow war between Israel and Iran that preceded the current conflict, Israel repeatedly targeted Iranian nuclear scientists with the aim of setting back Iran's nuclear program.\n\nIsrael continued that tactic with its initial blow against Iran days ago, killing multiple nuclear scientists, along with top generals, as well as striking nuclear facilities and ballistic missile infrastructure.\n\nFor its part, Iran has been accused of targeting at least one Weizmann scientist before. Last year, Israeli authorities said they busted an Iranian spy ring that devised a plot to follow and assassinate an Israeli nuclear scientist who worked and lived at the institute.\n\nCiting an indictment, Israeli media said the suspects, Palestinians from east Jerusalem, gathered information about the scientist and photographed the exterior of the Weizmann Institute but were arrested before they could proceed.\n\nWith Iran's intelligence penetration into Israel far less successful than Israel's, those plots have not been seen through, making this week's strike on Weizmann that much more jarring.\n\n\"The Weizmann Institute has been in Iran's sights,\" said Yoel Guzansky, an Iran expert and senior researcher at the Institute for National Security Studies, a Tel Aviv think tank. He stressed that he did not know for certain whether Iran intended to strike the institute but believed it did.\n\nWhile it is a multidisciplinary research institute, Weizmann, like other Israeli universities, has ties to Israel's defense establishment, including collaborations with industry leaders like Elbit Systems, which is why it may have been targeted.\n\nBut Guzansky said the institute primarily symbolizes \"Israeli scientific progress\" and the strike against it shows Iran's thinking: \"You harm our scientists, so we are also harming (your) scientific cadre.\"\n\n## Damage to the institute and labs 'literally decimated'\n\nWeizmann, founded in 1934 and later renamed after Israel's first president, ranks among the world's top research institutes. Its scientists and researchers publish hundreds of studies each year. One Nobel laureate in chemistry and three Turing Award laureates have been associated with the institute, which built the first computer in Israel in 1954.\n\nTwo buildings were hit in the strike, including one housing life sciences labs and a second that was empty and under construction but meant for chemistry study, according to the institute. Dozens of other buildings were damaged.\n\nThe campus has been closed since the strike, although media were allowed to visit Thursday. Large piles of rock, twisted metal and other debris were strewn on campus. There were shattered windows, collapsed ceiling panels and charred walls.\n\nA photo shared on X by one professor showed flames rising near a heavily damaged structure with debris scattered on the ground nearby.\n\n\"Several buildings were hit quite hard, meaning that some labs were literally decimated, really leaving nothing,\" said Sarel Fleishman, a professor of biochemics who said he has visited the site since the strike.\n\n## Life's work of many researchers is gone\n\nMany of those labs focus on the life sciences, whose projects are especially sensitive to physical damage, Fleishman said. The labs were studying areas like tissue generation, developmental biology or cancer, with much of their work now halted or severely set back by the damage.\n\n\"This was the life's work of many people,\" he said, noting that years' or even decades' worth of research was destroyed.\n\nFor Schuldiner, the damage means the lab he has worked at for 16 years \"is entirely gone. No trace. There is nothing to save.\"\n\nIn that once gleaming lab, he kept thousands of genetically modified flies used for research into the development of the human nervous system, which helped provide insights into autism and schizophrenia, he said.\n\nThe lab housed equipment like sophisticated microscopes. Researchers from Israel and abroad joined hands in the study effort.\n\n\"All of our studies have stopped,\" he said, estimating it would take years to rebuild and get the science work back on track. \"It's very significant damage to the science that we can create and to the contribution we can make to the world.\""}
{"requested_url": "https://apnews.com/article/kristi-noem-homeland-security-immigration-border-hospital-acab815b1bc9db61b1c90a1f17abeecb", "title": "Kristi Noem is \u2018alert and recovering\u2019 after trip to hospital, official says", "publishing_date": "2025-06-17 22:06:51+00:00", "topics": ["Kristi Noem", "Donald Trump", "Alex Padilla", "Tricia McLaughlin", "Airport security", "U.S. Department of Homeland Security", "Allergies", "DC Wire", "District of Columbia", "Politics", "Immigration"], "text": "# Kristi Noem is 'alert and recovering' after trip to hospital, official says\n\nBy Rebecca Santana and Eric Tucker  \nJune 17th, 2025, 10:06 PM\n\n---\n\nWASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem was taken to the hospital on Tuesday after experiencing an allergic reaction, her spokeswoman said.\n\n\"She is alert and recovering,\" said the statement from department spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin, who said the hospital treatment was out of an \"abundance of caution.\" Noem, 53, heads a sprawling department with roughly 260,000 employees handling immigration enforcement, airport security, disaster response and other matters.\n\nShe has been among the more high-profile members of President Donald Trump's cabinet, traveling extensively and maintaining a robust social media presence.\n\nShe is often the public face of his mass deportation effort, frequently goes out on immigration enforcement operations and has appeared in commercials encouraging immigrants in the country illegally to voluntarily leave the U.S.\n\nShe held a press conference last week in California where U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla, a California Democrat, was forcibly removed as he tried to speak to Noem about immigration raids. Padilla recalled the incident during an emotional speech from the Senate floor Tuesday.\n\nHomeland Security said the Secret Service, which is responsible for protecting the secretary, \"thought he was an attacker.\" They also accused Padilla of \"disrespectful political theater.\" Video of the incident shows a Secret Service agent on Noem's security detail grabbing Padilla by his jacket and shoving him from the room. In the hallway outside he was forced to the ground and handcuffed.\n\nNoem told Fox LA afterward that she had a \"great\" conversation with Padilla after the scuffle, but called his approach \"something that I don't think was appropriate at all.\"\n\nBefore being tapped to head Homeland Security, Noem was a two-term governor of South Dakota, a former member of Congress and a staunch Trump supporter.\n\nShe has said she specifically asked Trump for the Homeland Security portfolio because she knew it dealt with Trump's top priorities.\n\nEarlier this year Noem's purse was stolen on Easter Sunday while she was out to dinner with her family. The purse reportedly contained about $3,000 in cash, her keys, driver's license, passport and Homeland Security badge. The Homeland Security Department said Noem had cash in her purse to pay for gifts, dinner and other activities for her family on Easter.\n\nA suspect was later arrested in connection with the theft and has been charged in federal court with aggravated identity theft, robbery and fraud."}
{"requested_url": "https://apnews.com/article/sports-odds-23b8296e80c859a56cd0355aa2062815", "title": "Sports Betting Line", "publishing_date": "2025-06-18 04:10:10+00:00", "topics": ["Sports Odds", "Sports"], "text": "# Sports Betting Line\n\nBy The Associated Press  \nJune 18th, 2025, 04:10 AM\n\n---\n\n## NBA\n\nFor the latest odds, go to BetMGM Sportsbook"}
{"requested_url": "https://apnews.com/article/public-health-money-trump-lawsuit-houston-harris-county-424ec5cc43d0eadd98c05d9efb0ae039", "title": "Judge says Trump administration can't cut public health funding for Houston, Nashville, other cities", "publishing_date": "2025-06-17 22:56:09+00:00", "topics": ["Christopher Cooper", "District of Columbia", "Donald Trump", "Nashville", "Kansas City", "Missouri", "Tennessee", "Public health", "United States government", "United States", "Trump lawsuits", "Texas", "Ohio", "Pandemics", "Christian Menefee", "Legal proceedings", "U.S. Democratic Party", "Zach Klein", "U.S. Republican Party", "Politics", "Health", "Centers for Disease Control and Prevention", "Courts", "Lawsuits"], "text": "# Judge says Trump administration can't cut public health funding for Houston, Nashville, other cities\n\nBy Devi Shastri  \nJune 17th, 2025, 10:56 PM\n\n---\n\nA federal court has temporarily blocked the Trump administration from clawing back millions in public health funding from four Democrat-led municipalities in GOP-governed states.\n\nIt's the second such federal ruling to reinstate public health funding for several states.\n\nU.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper in Washington, D.C., issued a preliminary injunction Tuesday sought by district attorneys in Harris County, Texas, home to Houston, and three cities: Columbus, Ohio, Nashville, Tennessee, and Kansas City, Missouri. The decision means the federal government must reinstate funding to the four municipalities until the case is fully litigated.\n\n\"The federal government cannot simply ignore Congress and pull the plug on essential services that communities rely on,\" Harris County Attorney Christian Menefee said. \"Today's decision ensures we can keep doing the work that protects our residents \u2014 from tracking disease outbreaks to providing vaccinations and supporting vulnerable families.\"\n\nTheir lawsuit, filed in late April, alleged $11 billion in cuts to U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention programs had already been approved by Congress and are being unconstitutionally withheld. They also argued that the administration's actions violate Department of Health and Human Services regulations.\n\nThe cities and counties argued the cuts were \"a massive blow to U.S. public health at a time where state and local public health departments need to address burgeoning infectious diseases and chronic illnesses, like the measles, bird flu, and mpox.\" The cuts would lead to thousands of state and local public health employees being fired, the lawsuit argued.\n\nThe local governments, alongside the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees union, wanted the court to reinstate the grants nationwide. But Cooper said in his preliminary injunction that the funds can only be blocked to the four municipalities and in a May 21 hearing expressed skepticism about whether it could apply more widely.\n\nThe funding in question was granted during the COVID-19 pandemic but aimed at building up public health infrastructure overall, Menefee said in a statement in April.\n\nThe four local governments were owed about $32.7 million in future grant payments, Cooper's opinion notes.\n\nThe federal government's lawyers said the grants were legally cut because, \"Now that the pandemic is over, the grants and cooperative agreements are no longer necessary as their limited purpose has run out.\" They used the same argument in the case brought by 23 states and the District of Columbia over the HHS funding clawback.\n\nMenefee said the cuts defunded programs in Harris County for wastewater disease surveillance, community health workers and clinics and call centers that helped people get vaccinated. Columbus City Attorney Zach Klein said the cuts forced the city to fire 11 of its 22 infectious disease staffers.\n\nNashville used some of its grant money to support programs, including a \"strike team\" that after the pandemic addressed gaps in health services that kept kids from being able to enroll in school, according to the lawsuit.\n\nKansas City used one of its grants to build out capabilities to test locally for COVID-19, influenza and measles rather than waiting for results from the county lab. The suit details that after four years of work to certify facilities and train staff, the city \"was at the final step\" of buying lab equipment when the grant was canceled.\n\nRepresentatives for HHS, the CDC and the cities did not immediately respond to requests for comment Tuesday."}
{"requested_url": "https://apnews.com/article/petra-kvitova-wimbledon-wild-card-f4020dd81b0b5420dcd7fc0d78a9910f", "title": "2-time Wimbledon champ Petra Kvitova gets a wild card for this year's tournament", "publishing_date": "2025-06-18 10:24:24+00:00", "topics": ["Tennis", "Sports - Europe", "Sports", "Harriet Dart", "Petra Kvitova", "Jodie Burrage", "Wimbledon Championships", "Heather Watson", "Texas", "Dan Evans", "Austin"], "text": "# 2-time Wimbledon champ Petra Kvitova gets a wild card for this year's tournament\n\nJune 18th, 2025, 10:24 AM\n\n---\n\nLONDON (AP) \u2014 Petra Kvitova is returning to Wimbledon after the 2011 and 2014 champion was awarded a wild card Wednesday for this year's tournament.\n\nKvitova last played at the grass-court Grand Slam tournament in 2023, and became a mother for the first time when her son was born during last year's Wimbledon tournament.\n\nKvitova made her return to the WTA Tour in Austin, Texas, in February after 17 months away from the court and is currently ranked 572nd.\n\nKvitova, from the Czech Republic, was the only non-British player to get a singles wild card to the main draw on Wednesday.\n\nThe other seven players with wild cards for the women's draw include British players Heather Watson, Harriet Dart and Jodie Burrage, while Dan Evans is among seven British players given a wild card for the men's draw. One more men's wild card is due to be announced \"in due course,\" organizers said."}
{"requested_url": "https://apnews.com/article/valkyries-julie-vanloo-interpreter-languages-fa4cadf95e8ff6e95a9cc2d00760cc52", "title": "Valkyries' Julie Vanloo speaks 4 languages and helps teammates communicate", "publishing_date": "2025-06-18 15:50:54+00:00", "topics": ["Julie Vanloo", "Janelle Salaun", "Language", "WNBA", "Belgium", "California", "WNBA basketball", "Sports", "Womens National Basketball Association", "Laeticia Amihere", "Kayla Thornton", "Natalie Nakase", "Basketball", "Caitlin Clark", "NWSL soccer", "Carla Leite"], "text": "# Valkyries' Julie Vanloo speaks 4 languages and helps teammates communicate\n\nBy Janie Mccauley  \nJune 18th, 2025, 03:50 PM\n\n---\n\nOAKLAND, Calif. (AP) \u2014 Julie Vanloo smiled as the memory came back to her and the nursery rhyme words from her childhood became familiar again and just flowed.\n\nA short phrase in French from her days as a schoolgirl in Belgium.\n\nVanloo's ability to communicate in multiple languages has been crucial as the expansion Golden State Valkyries develop chemistry and find ways to make sure everyone can understand a given play or defensive set.\n\nHer teammates are often in awe.\n\nPart of an international roster on the Valkyries, Vanloo's language skills have helped everybody get comfortable on a team that has been changing by the week. Vanloo, Temi F\u00e1gb\u00e9nl\u00e9 (Great Britain) and Janelle Salaun (France) are currently competing for their countries in the EuroBasket 2025 tournament.\n\nThat has led to much mixing and matching for coach Natalie Nakase, who has counted on players like Vanloo making key assists on and off the court.\n\nThe Valkyries (5-6) will host Caitlin Clark and the Indiana Fever on Thursday night in their sixth home game \u2014 all of them sellouts \u2014 at Chase Center.\n\nVanloo will miss the fanfare of that matchup as she plays for Belgium \u2014 and she'll certainly brush up on her language skills while away.\n\nFor Vanloo, a commitment to building her speaking skills became as important as her basketball talent as she dreamt of reaching the WNBA. She speaks English, French, Italian and Flemish, the dialect of Dutch spoken in her home country.\n\n\"Slowly you step up to the next level and when we go to high school and we're 12 years old, we really start to drill it, we start to learn it, both English and French,\" she said. \"It's like six to nine hours per week we really learn English and French in Belgium. All of our series and even our cartoons are in English, we use subtitles for French so that's how we actually learned the accent and everything.\n\n\"So that's for all the kids out there, language is important, it's an advantage. I think you are rich when you know multiple languages because it's just easy to communicate and to create a bond with people.\"\n\nShe didn't always love it and she's not always perfect. But Vanloo has remained vigilant about learning.\n\n\"My goal was to come play professionally, to come to the league one day. If I have a goal, nobody's going to stop me,\" she said. \"For basketball, I was very, very motivated to learn languages.\"\n\nVanloo was selected by the Valkyries from Washington in the expansion draft last December.\n\nShe is one of eight non-American players on Golden State's roster representing six countries \u2014 Australia, Belgium, Canada, France, Italy and the United Kingdom.\n\nKayla Thornton played in Korea and realizes the challenges of trying to live in a place where she doesn't speak the language. She tries to use a few words with her teammates when possible.\n\n\"I do pick up on some of the stuff because we do have Italians and we do have French,\" Thornton said. \"When I do hear it I kind of do catch on, I do know a few phrases. Most of the time they teach you their lingo, and that's the bad lingo.\"\n\nVanloo's ability to share her basketball expertise and the basics takes pressure off Nakase.\n\n\"I think what's really helped is Julie can translate for all of them. Julie speaks everyone's language so that's kind of been really key, just how we can connect that way,\" Nakase said. \"Imagine going to another country and you have no idea. When I played in Germany I really wasn't understanding but I made sure I paid attention. So it's been nice to have Julie because she's listening, she's doing extra for a teammate.\"\n\nLaeticia Amihere of Canada, a native French speaker who didn't make the opening game roster but has since re-signed with the team, counts on Vanloo. So does rookie guard Carla Leite, who's from France and is working to gain confidence speaking English.\n\n\"A lot of us speak French and a lot of us speak different languages so to be able to use that on the court to our advantage I think it's been great,\" Amihere said. \"And she's obviously helping out the French and the French are helping us all just work cohesively and try to find a way we can communicate easily. It's been cool hearing different languages in the locker room. I'm used to it. Some people may not be used to it but I think it's dope.\"\n\nKyara Linskens is also from Belgium. She can relate to Vanloo's drive to reach the WNBA and do all the little things \u2014 like learning multiple languages \u2014 to get there.\n\n\"I realized (the importance), because I wanted this,\" Vanloo said. \"I'm telling you, when I want something I'm going to do it until I can't.\""}
{"requested_url": "https://apnews.com/article/pro-cheer-league-debut-a76c292ae728a9845902a2b33e5731c5", "title": "Cheerleaders can now go pro", "publishing_date": "2025-06-18 13:00:06+00:00", "topics": ["Lacrosse", "Memphis", "College sports", "Bill Seely", "National", "Florida", "Texas", "California", "Tennessee", "Georgia", "Indiana", "Sports", "Miami Hurricanes"], "text": "# Cheerleaders can now go pro\n\nBy Teresa M. Walker  \nJune 18th, 2025, 01:00 PM\n\n---\n\nVarsity Spirit is starting a professional cheerleading league that promises to pay athletes, joining the crowded niche sports market that already includes softball, volleyball, 3-on-3 basketball, lacrosse, indoor football and more clamoring for both fans' attention and their dollars.\n\nPro Cheer League is billed as the first professional cheerleading league for athletes 18 and older designed to give cheerleaders the chance to keep competing after college.\n\nBill Seely, president of Varsity Spirit based in Memphis, Tennessee, sees plenty of opportunity for all these sports to succeed. This cheer league's advantage comes from the sport's growth since the 1970s along with Varsity's own fan base through its cheerleading, dance team camps, events and shows.\n\n\"That's going to help us really kind of build this out in a way that is sustainable and will continue to grow not just domestically but globally,\" Seely said.\n\nVarsity Spirit has had more than 80,000 people attend its events. The Pro Cheer League will try to tap into that fan base by competing the same night of other events starting in January in Indianapolis when competition begins.\n\nThe league will feature four teams stocked with 30 male and female athletes based in Atlanta, Dallas, Miami and San Diego. Teams will be selected from tryouts starting in September led by gym owners. Practice begins in November.\n\nAfter Indianapolis, five more events are planned in Houston, Atlanta, Anaheim and capped by the championship in Nashville at the end of March or start of April.\n\nEach match will feature three periods of competition with two focusing on cheerleading skills, stunts, basket tosses and tumbling in bracket-style rounds. The final period will feature choreography and music.\n\n\"We hope a media deal, which we're working on right now, will help kind of bridge beyond the existing fan base,\" Seely said. \"And we're trying to build something that entertains families, friends and gives everyone just a great show that they want to come out to.\"\n\nBest for the cheerleaders will be money for their athleticism. Compensation will include pay, money for travel, lodging and uniforms along with bonuses and prizes.\n\nSeely noted stunt is on track for NCAA championship status for women by spring 2027 after being designated an emerging sport in 2023. The International Olympic Committee recognized cheerleading as a sport in 2021.\n\nThey've already had interest from would-be competitors from across the U.S. with some from Canada and even a couple from Europe.\n\n\"We just felt like it was the right next step for the activity and to really kind of magnify it to help inspire young people to participate in it,\" Seely said."}
{"requested_url": "https://apnews.com/article/transgender-passports-nonbinary-trump-policy-e5d13b6064c06619c654896fc0305983", "title": "Judge says government can't limit passport sex markers for many transgender, nonbinary people", "publishing_date": "2025-06-17 22:55:08+00:00", "topics": ["Donald Trump", "Gender", "Sex and sexuality", "Joe Biden", "United States government", "United States", "Massachusetts", "Julia Kobick", "U.S. Department of State", "American Civil Liberties Union", "Politics", "Anna Kelly"], "text": "# Judge says government can't limit passport sex markers for many transgender, nonbinary people\n\nBy Michael Casey  \nJune 17th, 2025, 10:55 PM\n\n---\n\nBOSTON (AP) \u2014 A federal judge has blocked the Trump administration from limiting passport sex markers for many transgender and nonbinary Americans.\n\nTuesday's ruling from U.S. District Judge Julia Kobick means that transgender or nonbinary people who are without a passport or need to apply for a new one can request a male, female or \"X\" identification marker rather than being limited to the marker that matches the gender assigned at birth.\n\nIn an executive order signed in January, the president used a narrow definition of the sexes instead of a broader conception of gender. The order said a person is male or female and rejected the idea that someone can transition from the sex assigned at birth to another gender.\n\nKobick first issued a preliminary injunction against the policy last month, but that ruling applied only to six people who joined with the American Civil Liberties Union in a lawsuit over the passport policy.\n\nIn Tuesday's ruling she agreed to expand the injunction to include transgender or nonbinary people who are currently without a valid passport, those whose passport is expiring within a year, and those who need to apply for a passport because theirs was lost or stolen or because they need to change their name or sex designation.\n\n\"This is yet another attempt by a rogue judge to thwart President Trump's agenda and push radical gender ideology that defies biological truth,\" White House Deputy Press Secretary Anna Kelly said in a statement to The Associated Press. \"There are only two genders, there is no such thing as gender 'X', and the President was given a mandate by the American people to restore common sense to the federal government.\"\n\nThe government failed to show that blocking its policy would cause it any constitutional injury, Kobick wrote, or harm the executive branch's relations with other countries.\n\nThe transgender and nonbinary people covered by the preliminary injunction, meanwhile, have shown that the passport policy violates their constitutional rights to equal protection, Kobick said.\n\n\"Even assuming a preliminary injunction inflicts some constitutional harm on the Executive Branch, such harm is the consequence of the State Department's adoption of a Passport Policy that likely violates the constitutional rights of thousands of Americans,\" Kobick wrote.\n\nThe judge declined to expressly include intersex people among the class of people affected by the injunction, though they are not excluded if they meet the other criteria the judge outlined. People who are intersex are born with naturally occurring variations to their chromosome patterns, internal or external reproductive organs or hormones that don't fit into categories of \"male\" or \"female.\"\n\nIn a footnote, Kobick wrote that she made the decision because \"intersex people are uniquely positioned to argue that the Passport Policy 'injects inaccuracy into the data' by assigning them a binary sex that lacks any biological basis,\" and it wasn't clear that a broader class of non-binary plaintiffs could fully represent the interests of intersex people.\n\nKobick, who was appointed by former President Joe Biden, sided with the ACLU's motion for a preliminary injunction, which stays the action while the lawsuit plays out.\n\n\"The Executive Order and the Passport Policy on their face classify passport applicants on the basis of sex and thus must be reviewed under intermediate judicial scrutiny,\" Kobick wrote in the preliminary injunction issued earlier this year. \"That standard requires the government to demonstrate that its actions are substantially related to an important governmental interest. The government has failed to meet this standard.\"\n\nIn its lawsuit, the ACLU described how one woman had her passport returned with a male designation while others are too scared to submit their passports because they fear their applications might be suspended and their passports held by the State Department.\n\nAnother mailed in their passport Jan. 9 and requested to change their name and their sex designation from male to female. That person was still waiting for their passport, the ACLU said in the lawsuit, and feared missing a family wedding and a botany conference this year.\n\nIn response to the lawsuit, the Trump administration argued that the passport policy change \"does not violate the equal protection guarantees of the Constitution.\" It also contended that the president has broad discretion in setting passport policy and that plaintiffs would not be harmed since they are still free to travel abroad."}
{"requested_url": "https://apnews.com/article/anna-camp-christine-helen-lakin-taylor-jenkins-suzanne-collins-maulik-pancholy-c1d8de7439a32670546e7de9b718d078", "title": "US-Audiobooks-Top-10", "publishing_date": "2025-06-17 18:40:13+00:00", "topics": ["Anna Camp", "Christine Helen Lakin", "Taylor Jenkins", "Suzanne Collins", "Maulik Pancholy", "Stephen King", "Iqbal Theba", "Books and literature", "Books Best Sellers", "Scott Z. Burns", "Morgan Housel", "Mel Robbins", "Conrad Ricamora", "Poorna Jagannathan", "Nate Bargatze", "Adam Pally", "Claudia Jessie", "Rebecca Yarros", "Derek Thompson", "Richard Kind", "Rebecca Soler", "Ezra Klein", "Margo Martindale", "James Clear", "Sean Pratt", "Emily Henry", "Jake Tapper", "Travis Baldree", "Jessie Mueller", "Padma Lakshmi", "Teddy Hamilton", "Jasmin Walker", "Julia Whelan", "Entertainment", "Jonathan Haidt", "Alex Thompson", "Karan Soni", "Achilles Stamatelaky", "Murray Bartlett", "Kristen DiMercurio", "Chris Hill", "Kasi Hollowell"], "text": "# US-Audiobooks-Top-10\n\nBy The Associated Press  \nJune 17th, 2025, 06:40 PM\n\n---\n\nNonfiction\n\n1. The Let Them Theory by Mel Robbins, narrated by the author (Audible Studios)\n\n2. What Could Go Wrong? by Scott Z. Burns, narrated by the author (Audible Originals)\n\n3. Atomic Habitsby James Clear, narrated by the author (Penguin Audio)\n\n4. The Anxious Generation by Jonathan Haidt, narrated by Sean Pratt and the author (Penguin Audio)\n\n5. Big Dumb Eyes by Nate Bargatze, narrated by the author (Grand Central Publishing)\n\n6. Abundance by Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson, narrated by the authors (Simon & Schuster Audio)\n\n7. The Next Conversation by Jefferson Fisher, narrated by the author (Penguin Audio)\n\n8. Original Sin by Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson, narrated by Jake Tapper (Penguin Audio)\n\n9. The Psychology of Money by Morgan Housel, narrated by Chris Hill (Harriman House)\n\n10. The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel van der Kolk, M.D., narrated by Sean Pratt (Penguin Audio)\n\nFiction\n\n1. Caught Up by Navessa Allen, narrated by Kasi Hollowell, Jason June and Teddy Hamilton (Slowburn)\n\n2. The Primal Hunter 12 by Zogarth, narrated by Travis Baldree (Aethon Audio)\n\n3. The Waitress by K. L. Slater, performed by Claudia Jessie (Audible Originals)\n\n4. Never Flinch by Stephen King, narrated by Jessie Mueller and the author (Simon & Schuster Audio)\n\n5. Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid, narrated by Kristen DiMercurio, Julia Whelan and Taylor Jenkins Reid (Random House Audio)\n\n6. Murder at the Patel Motel by Maulik Pancholy, Zackary Grady and Achilles Stamatelaky, performed by Maulik Pancholy, Murray Bartlett, Poorna Jagannathan, Karan Soni, Anna Camp, Adam Pally, Margo Martindale, Richard Kind, Iqbal Theba, Conrad Ricamora, Padma Lakshmi and full cast (Audible Originals)\n\n7. Great Big Beautiful Life by Emily Henry, narrated by Julia Whelan (Penguin Audio)\n\n8. Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins, narrated by Jefferson White (Scholastic Audio Books)\n\n9. The Tenant by Freida McFadden, narrated by Will Damron and Christine Helen Lakin (Dreamscape Media)\n\n10. Onyx Storm by Rebecca Yarros, narrated by Jasmin Walker, Justis Bolding, Teddy Hamilton and Rebecca Soler (Recorded Books)"}
{"requested_url": "https://apnews.com/article/pirates-bryan-reynolds-wife-labor-ca2c9ca5ef6887ac1204dc72fb2e8b0e", "title": "Bryan Reynolds leaves Pirates' game against Tigers when wife goes into labor", "publishing_date": "2025-06-18 00:24:20+00:00", "topics": ["Alexander Canario", "Don Kelly", "Pittsburgh Pirates", "Detroit Tigers", "Baseball", "Michigan", "MLB", "Pennsylvania", "Bryan Reynolds", "Sports", "MLB baseball"], "text": "# Bryan Reynolds leaves Pirates' game against Tigers when wife goes into labor\n\nBy Dave Hogg  \nJune 18th, 2025, 12:24 AM\n\n---\n\nDETROIT (AP) \u2014 Pittsburgh Pirates outfielder Bryan Reynolds left Tuesday night's loss to the Detroit Tigers in the second inning when his wife went into labor.\n\nReynolds struck out to end the top of the first and didn't make a play in the field in the bottom of the inning. He was replaced by Alexander Canario in right field and is expected to be added to the paternity list.\n\nPirates manager Don Kelly said he expected Reynolds to rejoin the team for this weekend's home series against the Texas Rangers.\n\n\"That's what I would think, given the timing,\" Kelly said.\n\nCanario hit a two-run single in the third to give Pittsburgh a 3-2 lead, but Detroit rallied for a 7-3 win.\n\nThe 30-year-old Reynolds, a two-time All-Star, is hitting .222 with eight homers, 39 RBIs and 81 strikeouts in 71 games."}
{"requested_url": "https://apnews.com/article/jeezy-interview-tm101-anniversary-16b707af128f945e362ddad31b36b8ba", "title": "Jeezy reflects on the legacy of 'Thug Motivation 101'", "publishing_date": "2025-06-18 19:00:44+00:00", "topics": ["Jay-Z", "Gary Gerard Hamilton", "Atlanta", "Classical music", "Florida", "Georgia", "Entertainment", "Prostate cancer", "Hip hop and rap", "Drug crimes", "Samuel L. Jackson", "DJ Drama", "Akon", "Associated Press"], "text": "# Jeezy reflects on the legacy of 'Thug Motivation 101'\n\nBy Gary Gerard Hamilton and By Gary Gerard Hamilton  \nJune 18th, 2025, 07:00 PM\n\n---\n\nNEW YORK (AP) \u2014 When Jeezy released his commercial debut two decades ago, he prepared a contingency plan in case his musical aspirations weren't achieved.\n\n\"You don't know if you're going to be around in 20 years,\" said the drug dealer-turned-rap legend. \"The streets change fast. But it's also a safe haven, too, 'cause it was like, 'OK, well, if it doesn't work, maybe I can go back.'\"\n\nBut there would be no need: \"Let's Get It: Thug Motivation 101\" was met with monumental success. The album, deemed a classic by critics and fans, detailed the Atlanta rapper's navigation of the drug trade and street life. It debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 with singles like \"Soul Survivor\" featuring Akon \u2014 which reached No. 4 on the Hot 100 \u2014 and \"Go Crazy,\" featuring a Jay-Z verse many consider one of his greatest.\n\nWith distinctive ad-libs as memorable as his vivid storytelling, Jeezy displayed his gift of motivation, inspiring a vast cross-section of fans.\n\n\"The music and the words resonated so well because they came from a real place. I wasn't trying to entertain \u2014 I was trying to reach,\" said the \"My President\" rapper, who has built a business empire consisting of real estate and partnerships.\n\nIn honor of the album's 20th anniversary, Jeezy is launching his \"TM:101 Live\" tour on June 27 in Miami, encouraging fans to come sharply dressed for the upscale performances. The Color of Noize Orchestra will back him, along with guest DJ Drama from their acclaimed \"Trap or Die\" mixtape.\n\nJeezy spoke with the Associated Press about the album's legacy, social media discourse surrounding him and ex-wife Jeannie Mai, and his infamous snowman shirts that were banned at schools over accusations of promoting drug culture. This conversation has been edited for clarity and brevity.\n\n## AP: It's hard to describe the magnitude of \"TM:101\" when it dropped. What was that time like?\n\nJEEZY: I just had this feeling that \u2014 if I could just get it out \u2014 that it would be life-changing for me. So, there was a lot of things I was up against at that time and I must say personally, that was probably the most adversity I ever faced. \u2026 I tore my vocal cords because I had polyps on my vocal cords and didn't know it. And then around the same time, I was hit with Bell's palsy. And around that time, the album got leaked.\n\nIf you're doing something to change your life and you know that the only other avenues are prison or death, you're just like, \"This gotta work.\"\n\n## AP: Schools across the country began banning your snowman shirts. What's the legacy of them?\n\nJEEZY: Samuel L. Jackson told me something a long time ago \u2014 a great friend of mine \u2014 he just said the snowman represents people that were demonized, and it was bigger than me. \u2026 It was this imagery of something that I was inspiring to be. And to know that they would suspend kids from school and keep them from wearing something that would represent that tells me that the message was loud and clear. \u2026 \"We got a people's champ.\"\n\n## AP: How have you managed your transition from street to corporate life?\n\nJEEZY: It's like a tree: It grows where it's soft at, not where it is hard. It's just like over time, leaves fall off, branches fall off but the tree continues to grow.\n\nEverybody don't have the same vision or goals. And if you allow them, they'll sink the ship \u2014 or they'll chop down the tree.\n\n## AP: You've been private about your relationships, so how have you dealt with the social media coverage about your divorce?\n\nJEEZY: I just live my life, man. You know, joy, peace, and freedom, brother. I don't know these people, so I can't even feel no type of way. That's on them \u2014 I got better things to do. I've got goals, dreams, aspirations, so I don't get caught up in it, 'cause I don't go for the good, either. \u2026 I'm not reading the comments to see what somebody said about me good, because none of it matters.\n\n## AP: You're leading community service initiatives. What is that important to you?\n\nJEEZY: I do want to shout out LISC (Local Initiatives Support Corporation) which is my partner on my nonprofit space. They're amazing. We're actually focusing in on prostate cancer, and then also helping the inner city youth with education, entrepreneurship. ... I'd like to shout out the Urban League of Atlanta, and we have the Young CEOs program.\n\nIt's great to put out projects, it's great to do tours. But it's also great to help your people in the process."}
{"requested_url": "https://apnews.com/article/pittsburgh-pirates-detroit-tigers-alex-cobb-andrew-mccutchen-athlete-injuries-7bcfba1cb25b4a2ba13fc7ad7e386ed6", "title": "Pirates come into matchup with the Tigers on losing streak", "publishing_date": "2025-06-19 08:01:06+00:00", "topics": ["Pittsburgh Pirates", "Detroit Tigers", "Alex Cobb", "Andrew McCutchen", "Athlete injuries", "Baseball", "Michigan", "MLB", "Pennsylvania", "Endy Rodriguez", "Johan Oviedo", "Colin Holderman", "Jason Foley", "Andrew Heaney", "Jackson Jobe", "Enmanuel Valdez", "Tarik Skubal", "Sports", "MLB baseball", "Matt Vierling", "Spencer Torkelson", "Reese Olson", "Javier Baez", "Justin Lawrence", "Alan Farina", "Isiah Kiner-Falefa", "Jose Urquidy", "Alex Lange", "Jared Jones"], "text": "# Pirates come into matchup with the Tigers on losing streak\n\nBy The Associated Press  \nJune 19th, 2025, 08:01 AM\n\n---\n\nPittsburgh Pirates (29-45, fifth in the NL Central) vs. Detroit Tigers (47-27, first in the AL Central)\n\nDetroit; Thursday, 1:10 p.m. EDT\n\nPITCHING PROBABLES: Pirates: Andrew Heaney (3-5, 3.33 ERA, 1.11 WHIP, 59 strikeouts); Tigers: Tarik Skubal (7-2, 1.99 ERA, 0.81 WHIP, 111 strikeouts)\n\nBETMGM SPORTSBOOK LINE: Tigers -328, Pirates +259; over/under is 7 runs\n\nBOTTOM LINE: The Pittsburgh Pirates are looking to stop their three-game skid with a win over the Detroit Tigers.\n\nDetroit is 47-27 overall and 25-11 in home games. The Tigers have a 32-4 record in games when they have more hits than their opponents.\n\nPittsburgh has a 29-45 record overall and a 10-26 record in road games. The Pirates are 19-8 in games when they have more hits than their opponents.\n\nThe teams square off Thursday for the second time this season.\n\nTOP PERFORMERS: Spencer Torkelson has 16 doubles and 16 home runs while hitting .234 for the Tigers. Javier Baez is 14 for 37 with two doubles and three home runs over the past 10 games.\n\nIsiah Kiner-Falefa has 10 doubles, a triple, a home run and 15 RBIs for the Pirates. Andrew McCutchen is 12 for 40 with three doubles and two home runs over the last 10 games.\n\nLAST 10 GAMES: Tigers: 6-4, .260 batting average, 4.25 ERA, outscored by seven runs\n\nPirates: 5-5, .204 batting average, 2.45 ERA, outscored opponents by five runs\n\nINJURIES: Tigers: Jackson Jobe: 60-Day IL (flexor), Jason Foley: 60-Day IL (shoulder), Alex Cobb: 60-Day IL (hip), Matt Vierling: 10-Day IL (shoulder), Reese Olson: 15-Day IL (finger), Ty Madden: 60-Day IL (shoulder), Jose Urquidy: 60-Day IL (elbow), Alex Lange: 60-Day IL (lat)\n\nPirates: Endy Rodriguez: 60-Day IL (elbow), Colin Holderman: 15-Day IL (thumb), Enmanuel Valdez: 60-Day IL (shoulder), Justin Lawrence: 60-Day IL (elbow), Tim Mayza: 60-Day IL (shoulder), Jared Jones: 60-Day IL (elbow), Johan Oviedo: 60-Day IL (elbow)"}
{"requested_url": "https://apnews.com/article/elio-movie-review-373e91bf4d64126f2ef491cff94c0f98", "title": "'Elio' review: Pixar plays it safe in formulaic intergalactic adventure", "publishing_date": "2025-06-17 20:02:07+00:00", "topics": ["Movies", "Film Reviews", "Yonas Kibreab", "Lindsey Bahr", "Entertainment", "Adrian Molina", "Zoe Saldaa", "Brad Garrett", "Walt Disney"], "text": "# 'Elio' review: Pixar plays it safe in formulaic intergalactic adventure\n\nBy Lindsey Bahr  \nJune 17th, 2025, 08:02 PM\n\n---\n\nElio is a lonely 11-year-old just looking for big answers about life.\n\nHe's recently lost his parents, the only people who understood him and wanted him, and the one thing that seems to give him comfort and hope is the idea that we're not alone in the universe. So, in Pixar's latest (in theaters Friday), he starts waging a campaign for aliens to abduct him. Mostly, this involves laying down on the beach and waiting, his sand notes getting ever more desperate. Then one day it works.\n\nIt's a solid premise that, viewed one way, has all the makings of a classic Pixar film. It's existential but cute. It might make you cry and also want to buy a cuddly Glordon toy. Glordon (Remy Edgerly) is the toothy, slug-like young alien with no eyes who befriends Elio (Yonas Kibreab).\n\nFrom a more cynical vantage point, however, it also doesn't stray far from the formula. It's another kid realizing that the things that make him different might just be his secret power played out on a heightened, fantastical scale. It's safe and familiar, but also perhaps getting a little tired. \"Elio\" might even be the film that will have you wishing that Pixar would tone down the self-help sessions. Dead parents and a kid with a single tear running down his face is a brutal way to start an intergalactic adventure movie for the whole family. We've cared about protagonists with far less immediate trauma.\n\nElio and his aunt Olga ( Zoe Salda\u00f1a ) are barely holding on when we meet them living on an army base. She's had to abandon her dreams of being an astronaut to be Elio's primary caregiver, and he is a tricky subject \u2014 consumed with grief that he can't quite verbalize and channeling all of his energies into a quest to communicate with extraterrestrials. Olga is trying but overwhelmed and Elio feels like a burden. On top of it all, he can't seem to stay out of trouble, whether it's his own making or in self-defense against a local bully. It's no wonder he wants to flee for a world of infinite knowledge, voice powered anti-gravity devices and spectacular colors.\n\nBut life in the cosmos is no walk in the park either. Elio gets immediately entangled in a web of lies, in which he convinces the (we're told) wise aliens of the Communiverse that he is the leader of Earth. Fake it until you make it, Pixar-style? He's sent to negotiate with Lord Grigon (Brad Garrett), a warmongering leader who wants to lead the Communiverse, and learns techniques like \"start from a position of power\" and to use a \"bargaining chip.\" Like most Pixar movies, it's building towards a message of empathy. But for a good long while it we're also being taught something akin to the art of the deal.\n\n\"Elio\" is the work of many people \u2014 there are three credited directors, Adrian Molina ( \"Coco\" ), who left the project but retains the credit, Madeline Sharafian and Domee Shi (\"Turning Red\"), and three credited screenwriters involved. And the story stretches in a lot of different directions, making the overall experience a little disjointed and strained. It's most fun when it lets its kid characters be kids \u2014 Elio and his new pal Glordon have a ball just playing around in the Communiverse. But the film just takes so long to get there. Dazzling visuals will only get you so far. And those are not without their pleasures and irreverent homages to film tropes in various genres. One of the more questionably intense sequences involves a bit of clone body horror, but perhaps that's an adult projecting a horror element onto something that a kid might just find funny.\n\nThere's a nice overriding message about parental acceptance and unconditional love \u2013 there always is. But in playing it so safe and so familiar, \"Elio\" is missing a bit of that Pixar wonder, and mischief.\n\n\"Elio,\" a Walt Disney Company release in theaters Friday, is rated PG by the Motion Picture Association for \"thematic elements, some action and peril.\" Running time. 99 minutes. Two and a half stars out of four."}
{"requested_url": "https://apnews.com/article/tom-cruise-honorary-oscars-ae1d8e604d46aae259fed9fdb4e4d4ec", "title": "Tom Cruise, Dolly Parton to receive honorary Oscars", "publishing_date": "2025-06-17 18:03:28+00:00", "topics": ["Tom Cruise", "Debbie Allen", "Dolly Parton", "Movies", "Ron Howard", "Academy Awards", "Academy Awards  Oscars", "California", "Wynn Thomas", "Arts and entertainment", "Quincy Jones", "Janet Yang", "Spike Lee", "Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences", "Richard Curtis", "Michael G. Wilson", "Ray Dolby", "Barbara Broccoli", "Los Angeles"], "text": "# Tom Cruise, Dolly Parton to receive honorary Oscars\n\nBy Lindsey Bahr  \nJune 17th, 2025, 06:03 PM\n\n---\n\nThirty-five years after Tom Cruise received his first Oscar nomination, he's finally getting a trophy. It's not for his death-defying stunts, either. At least, not exclusively.\n\nCruise, choreographer Debbie Allen and \"Do The Right Thing\" production designer Wynn Thomas have all been selected to receive honorary Oscar statuettes at the annual Governors Awards, the film academy said Tuesday. Dolly Parton will also be recognized with the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award for her decades-long charitable work in literacy and education.\n\n\"This year's Governors Awards will celebrate four legendary individuals whose extraordinary careers and commitment to our filmmaking community continue to leave a lasting impact,\" Academy President Janet Yang said in a statement.\n\nMost recipients of the prize historically have not yet won a competitive Oscar themselves. Cruise, 62, has been nominated four times, twice for best actor in \"Born on the Fourth of July\" and \"Jerry Maguire,\" once for supporting actor in \"Magnolia\" and once for best picture with \"Top Gun: Maverick.\" He's also championed theatrical moviegoing and big-scale Hollywood production through the coronavirus pandemic.\n\nYang spotlighted Cruise's \"incredible commitment to our filmmaking community, to the theatrical experience, and to the stunts community.\"\n\nAllen, 75, has never been nominated for an Oscar. But the multi-hyphenate entertainer \u2014 she also acts and produces \u2014 has played an integral role in the Oscars show, having choreographed seven ceremonies over the years. Four of those were nominated for prime-time Emmy awards.\n\nA nomination had also eluded Thomas, a leading production designer whose films have often gone on to best picture nominations and even one win, for Ron Howard's \"A Beautiful Mind.\" Thomas is most known for his long-term collaboration with filmmaker Spike Lee, from \"She's Gotta Have It\" and \"Malcolm X\" through \"Da 5 Bloods.\"\n\nParton has been nominated twice for best original song, for \"9 to 5\" and, in 2006, \"Travelin' Thru\" from the film \"Transamerica.\" But her honor celebrates her humanitarian efforts over the years, through organizations like the Dollywood Foundation and the literary program \"Dolly Parton's Imagination Library.\"\n\nYang said Parton \"exemplifies the spirit\" of the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award.\n\nThe awards will be handed out during an untelevised ceremony on Nov. 16 at the Ray Dolby Ballroom in Los Angeles. Last year's recipients included the late Quincy Jones, Bond producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson, filmmaker Richard Curtis and casting director Juliet Taylor.\n\nRecipients of the prizes, which honor lifetime achievement, contributions to the state of motion picture arts and sciences and service to the academy are selected by the film academy's board of governors."}
{"requested_url": "https://apnews.com/article/hurricane-erick-acapulco-strengthening-2fd2680c0d58546f115555e1a4456363", "title": "Hurricane Erick is quickly building strength as it heads toward Mexico. Here's why", "publishing_date": "2025-06-18 20:12:47+00:00", "topics": ["Storms", "Mexico", "Weather", "Hurricane Erick", "Atlantic Ocean", "Hurricanes and typhoons", "Latin America", "Kerry Emanuel", "Brian McNoldy", "Climate and environment", "Associated Press", "Kristen Corbosiero"], "text": "# Hurricane Erick is quickly building strength as it heads toward Mexico. Here's why\n\nBy Seth Borenstein  \nJune 18th, 2025, 08:12 PM\n\n---\n\nWASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 Having doubled in strength in less than a day and still expected to grow further, Hurricane Erick on Wednesday chugged through the ideal environment to power up quickly as it approached Mexico's southern Pacific Coast.\n\nThis type of rapid intensification has become more common in a warmer climate, especially in the Atlantic and near the United States, which is not where Erick is now, scientists said. Last year, there were 34 incidents of rapid intensification \u2014 when a storm gains at least 35 mph in 24 hours \u2014 which is about twice as many as average and causes problems with forecasting, according to the National Hurricane Center.\n\nErick, an otherwise run-of-the-mill hurricane that's strong but not unusual, gained 50 mph in just 18 hours and was still powering up as it neared the coast.\n\nThe only thing that's unusual so far is that this is the fifth eastern Pacific storm a month into the season there, which is a little more active than normal, said University of Miami hurricane researcher Brian McNoldy. And it's likely that when Erick hits, it will be the strongest storm to make landfall in that part of Mexico this early in the season, he said.\n\nOn average, the fifth named storm first appears in the Eastern Pacific basin around July 23, according to the hurricane center. The Eastern Pacific hurricane season, which starts May 15 and runs through Nov. 30, averages 15 named storms, eight of which become hurricanes with four of those reaching major status of winds more than 110 mph (177 kph). In general, the eastern Pacific tends to have about one storm a year more than the Atlantic. But Atlantic storms tend to cause more destruction because they hit more populated areas.\n\nBecause of where Erick is headed \u2014 nearing Acapulco \u2014 and its rapid intensification, the storm brings back bad memories of deadly Otis, which seemed to come from out of nowhere to smack Mexico with a top-of-the-scale Category 5 hurricane in 2023. But Erick is no Otis, especially because of their timing. Erick is an early-season storm and Otis hit in October.\n\nForming in October, Otis grew stronger by churning up deeper and warmer water because it was later in the year. Erick is early in the year and the deep water it would churn up is cooler and doesn't fuel rapid intensification. Even so, the surface water is plenty hot enough, said MIT hurricane scientist Kerry Emanuel.\n\nAll the ingredients are otherwise perfect for Erick's power-up, said University at Albany atmospheric scientist Kristen Corbosiero. Dry air often stops rapid intensification, but Erick hasn't run into dry air and the atmosphere around it is extremely moist, she said. It's got a good stormy eye forming and has what would be the ideal shape of a strengthening storm, she said.\n\nStudies have linked human-caused climate change in general to more bouts of rapid intensification, as well as wetter and slower storms, Corbosiero said. But it would take more study, usually after the storm hits, to find any potential link between global warming and Erick in particular, she said."}
{"requested_url": "https://apnews.com/article/joan-garcia-bacelona-espanyol-goalkeeper-15f94cdc36f349f73a98a946981b2b49", "title": "Barcelona signs Espanyol goalkeeper Joan Garc\u00eda", "publishing_date": "2025-06-18 12:44:36+00:00", "topics": ["Joan Garca", "FC Barcelona", "Barcelona", "Soccer", "Spain", "Sports transactions", "2024 Paris Olympic Games", "Paris", "Sports", "Wojciech Szczesny"], "text": "# Barcelona signs Espanyol goalkeeper Joan Garc\u00eda\n\nBy Joseph Wilson  \nJune 18th, 2025, 12:44 PM\n\n---\n\nBARCELONA, Spain (AP) \u2014 Barcelona is signing Espanyol goalkeeper Joan Garc\u00eda, who was once linked to a move to Arsenal, to a six-year contract, the Spanish champion said Wednesday.\n\nThe 24-year-old Garc\u00eda recently finished a stellar first season in La Liga when he led all goalkeepers in saves with an average of almost four a game.\n\nHe will now join Espanyol's main rival on a contract until June 2031.\n\nBarcelona said it activated a release clause of 25 million euros ($28.5 million) and that Garc\u00eda is expected to sign the contract Friday in a \"private ceremony\" at the club's offices.\n\nThe fee could help Espanyol reinforce a squad after it only avoided relegation on the final day of the season.\n\nGarc\u00eda had been close to a possible move to Arsenal last summer after he helped Spain win Olympic gold in Paris. He stayed put and was one of Espanyol's best players.\n\nGarc\u00eda has yet to debut for Spain's senior side, but it's considered only a matter of time before he does if he continues to play well. He helped Spain win the Olympic gold medal in Paris last year.\n\n\"The time has come to part ways. Today I say goodbye to the club that has been my home since I was 15,\" he said on social media. \"I've given everything to help the team, to represent this badge with the utmost dedication, and to live up to what it means to wear this shirt.\"\n\nGarc\u00eda said he would understand the backlash from Espanyol fans for him joining its rival.\n\n\"I know this decision won't be easy for everyone to understand,\" he said. \"I'm not asking you to do so. But I do want you to know that it was a carefully considered decision, considering not only my career, but also what's best for the club, my family, and me.\"\n\nGarc\u00eda's arrival to Barcelona puts in question the role of veteran Marc-Andr\u00e9 ter Stegen, who was injured most of the season. Ter Stegen is under contract through 2028.\n\nFollowing Ter Stegen's injury, Barcelona convinced Wojciech Szcz\u0119sny to come out of retirement and sign a contract for the remainder of last season. Barcelona's other goalkeeper is I\u00f1aki Pe\u00f1a.\n\nWhile several Barcelona players have joined Espanyol later in their careers, it is rare for an Espanyol player to move to Barcelona. Their derbies are heated affairs.\n\nBarcelona won the Spanish league this year."}